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

Following the animal trails came the mound builder.

From Blue Ridge Country by Caldwell, Erskine

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

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

From The Mound Builders by Bryce, George

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