muskrat
Americannoun
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a large, aquatic, North American rodent, Ondatra zibethica, having a musky odor.
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its thick, light-brown fur, used for coats, for hats, as a trimming, etc.
noun
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a North American beaver-like amphibious rodent, Ondatra zibethica, closely related to but larger than the voles: family Cricetidae
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the brown fur of this animal
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either of two closely related rodents, Ondatra obscurus or Neofiber alleni ( round-tailed muskrat )
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of muskrat
1680–90, alteration, by folk etymology, of musquash
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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.
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After graduating from high school, Rinella was set on becoming a commercial fur trapper, selling muskrat, beaver, mink, fox and raccoon pelts to be made into fur coats and hats.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2022
A muskrat population oscillates 33 above and below average during the year, reaching the lowest value in January.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 1, 2021
They labeled as "high" risk animals like white-tailed deer, the Chinese hamster, the beluga whale, the giant anteater and the muskrat.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2021
Key lyric: “Forest hearth and muskrat wine / And felted touch near river’s crest.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2021
By careful watching, she was able to distinguish the dark brown fur of a muskrat, near the burrow, though they were the same color as the mud along the bank.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
While these mussels are not harvested for human consumption, larger species, like waterbirds, raccoons, muskrats and otters, regularly eat freshwater mussels, meaning the contamination could pass up the food chain, Pankratz said.
From Science Daily ● May 31, 2024
A city where bullfrogs sing in marshes, where otters and muskrats frolic along the waterfront, and where kingfishers perform aerial acrobatics into ponds thick with fish.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2023
A museum dedicated to her memory is in the center of town, not far from the tidewater areas where she learned to catch muskrats and crabs as a little girl.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2022
It is larger than several U.S. states, and home to 130,000 people and countless bobcats, beavers, muskrats and cottontail rabbits.
From Reuters ● Aug. 12, 2022
Somewhere under there, they knew, was the den of a family of muskrats.
From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
