prairie dog

noun

1. any of several burrowing rodents of the genus Cynomys, of North American prairies, having a barklike cry: some are endangered.

prairie dog

noun

1. Also called: prairie marmot. any of several gregarious sciurine rodents of the genus Cynomys, such as C. ludovicianus, that live in large complex burrows in the prairies of North America

Word History and Origins

Origin of prairie dog¹

An Americanism dating back to 1765–75

Example Sentences

In another, the blackened bricks of the fireplace poked up from the debris like prairie dogs.

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The ferrets live mainly off of the prairie dogs they catch.

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My favorite: a young bear engaged in a whack-a-mole-like game with a flock of prairie dogs.

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Their prey is prairie dogs, and the ferrets hunt the rodents in often vast burrow colonies on the plains.

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But for researchers like Kainz and CU Boulder geologist Lon Abbott, the High Plains that extend over much of eastern Colorado -- the territory of tumbleweeds and prairie dogs -- may be even more interesting.

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