Chiricahua
Americannoun
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a member of an Apache group that comprises several Apache bands, formerly located in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, now living primarily in Oklahoma and New Mexico.
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the Athabascan language of the Chiricahua, differing only dialectically from Navaho.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Chiricahua
First recorded in 1885–90; via Spanish from Opata (extinct Uto-Aztecan language of Sonora) Chihuicahui or Chiguicagui “Mountain of the Wild Turkey” (now the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona)
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.
See Examples For:
Moffett, who studies the social behavior of ants and other animals, noticed the interaction while visiting a research station in Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 14, 2026
The family is Chiricahua Apache and Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Bildagoteel, is a consecrated place used for prayer and ritual by them and many other Native Americans in the region.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 28, 2023
Another, named Sombra, however, was spotted in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains later that year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
Posted outside Cave Creek Ranch in the Chiricahua Mountains, about 150 miles southeast of Tucson, a schedule of the expected arrival dates of migrating and seasonal birds anticipated the elegant trogon on April 6.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2021
El Patron had to stay in bed until he felt well enough to travel to his other house in the Chiricahua Mountains.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
Colonel Evans felt badly enough, but his caprice for a chat with Tah-nu-nu had prevented the superstitious Chiricahuas from entirely avoiding the "bad medicine" of Kah-go-mish.
From The Red Mustang by Stoddard, William O.
The Chiricahuas were not needed any more, considering what had become of The-boy-whose-ear-pushed-away-a-piece-of-lead.
From The Red Mustang by Stoddard, William O.
None of the white men overheard that remark, and none of them dreamed of watching Chiricahuas after what had occurred at the spring.
From The Red Mustang by Stoddard, William O.
The Hostile Chiricahuas The native Pinaleno Indians of the San Carlos region, while inclined toward spasmodic outbreaks, were not as hostile as their western neighbors, the Mohave and Yuma Apaches.
From Mormon Settlement in Arizona A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert by McClintock, James H.
Neither of us knew anything of mining, but we were both thirsty for adventure, and took a schoolboy delight in playing the game of life or death with the Chiricahuas.
From Arizona Nights by White, Stewart Edward
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.
