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• mound builder
  mound builder

  noun

  megapode.
• Mound Builder
  Mound Builder

  noun

  a member of one of the various American Indian tribes who, in prehistoric and early historic times, erected the burial mounds and other earthworks of the Mississippi drainage basin and southeastern U.S.
• mound-builder
  mound-builder

  noun

  another name for megapode

mound builder

¹ American  

noun

1. megapode.

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Mound Builder ² American  

noun

1. a member of one of the various American Indian tribes who, in prehistoric and early historic times, erected the burial mounds and other earthworks of the Mississippi drainage basin and southeastern U.S.

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Mound Builder ¹ British  

noun

1. a member of a group of prehistoric inhabitants of the Mississippi region who built altar-mounds, tumuli, etc

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mound-builder ² British  

noun

1. another name for megapode

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Etymology

Origin of mound builder¹

First recorded in 1835–45

Origin of Mound Builder²

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mound builder Mound Builder mound-builder

Following the animal trails came the mound builder.

From Blue Ridge Country by Caldwell, Erskine

Add to the above the fact that the traveler by day never sees the mound builder, and we have the chief reasons why curiosity is so often aroused by these habitations.

From Life History of the Kangaroo Rat by Vorhies, Charles Taylor

It would seem to justify us in concluding that the farmer and the mound builder avoided the one locality because of its barren rocky character, and took to the other because of its fertility.

From The Mound Builders by Bryce, George

Furthermore the mound builder used metal tools, and was probably a metal worker.

From The Mound Builders by Bryce, George

As good a place, I take it, For the mound builder to make his man-effigies Out of the mould in, As the cathedral is, for its artists To make man-effigies out of the black marble!

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 5, May, 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various

The last Mound Builder culture, the Mississippian, lasted from around A.D.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012

Neither wilt thou ever know Anything of me, old Mound Builder!

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 5, May, 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various

A still more diffused, perhaps, if less productive, source of life exists in another burrower and mound-builder, the crawfish.

From Lippincott's Magazine, December, 1885 by Various

With the mound-builder tobacco was the greatest of luxuries; his solace in his hours of relaxations, and the choicest offering he could dedicate to the Great Spirit.

From Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce by Billings, E. R.

Aztecs: A fabulous race, half man, half horse, half mound-builder.

From Literary Lapses by Leacock, Stephen