bois de vache
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of bois de vache
1835–45, < Prairie Canadian French: literally, buffalo wood ( vache buffalo, French: cow)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
No wood, but plenty of "bois de vache" for fuel. 19-1/4.
From The Prairie Traveler A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions by Randolph Barnes Marcy
The timber began to thin out too, and they were obliged to resort for their fire to the bois de vache, or buffalo-chips.
From The Great Salt Lake Trail by Henry Inman
Beyond this stream we traveled over high and level prairies, halting at small ponds and holes of water, and using for our fires the bois de vache, the country being without timber.
From The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California To which is Added a Description of the Physical Geography of California, with Recent Notices of the Gold Region from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources by John Charles Frémont
There was no timber of any kind on the river, but good fires were made of drift wood, aided by the bois de vache.
From The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California To which is Added a Description of the Physical Geography of California, with Recent Notices of the Gold Region from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources by John Charles Frémont
Last year's signs of them were provokingly abundant; and wood being extremely scarce, we found an admirable substitute in bois de vache, which burns exactly like peat, producing no unpleasant effects.
From The Oregon Trail: sketches of prairie and Rocky-Mountain life by Francis Parkman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
