mound builder

¹

noun

1. megapode.

Mound Builder

²

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.

Mound Builder

¹

noun

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

mound-builder

²

noun

1. another name for megapode

Word History and Origins

Origin of mound builder¹

First recorded in 1835–45

Origin of mound builder²

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

It's all right, after all, I suppose; but if I were a little mound-builder's baby, I'd rather have a mamma that would stay around and go places with me, wouldn't you?

From Project Gutenberg

Every skeleton of a Mound-Builder is found in a condition of extreme decay.

From Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg

Books are not, however, loaned, as they are from the Cossitt Library, an institution to which I found myself returning more than once; now for a book, now to look at the interesting collection of mound-builder relics contained in an upper room, now merely because it is a place of such reposeful hospitality that I liked to make excuses to go back.

From Project Gutenberg

Bearing in mind the many attempts at archæological frauds that recent years have brought to light, archæologists have a right to demand that objects which afford a basis for such important deductions as the coeval life of the Mound-Builder and the mastodon, should be above the slightest suspicion not only in respect to their resemblances, but as regards the circumstances of discovery.

From Project Gutenberg