wickiup

or wick·y·up, wik·i·up

[ wik-ee-uhp ]
See synonyms for wickiup on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. (in Nevada, Arizona, etc.) an American Indian hut made of brushwood or covered with mats.

  2. Western U.S. any rude hut.

Origin of wickiup

1
1850–55, Americanism; earlier and still dialectally applied to the bark- or mat-covered wigwams of the Upper Great Lakes Indians <Fox wi·kiya·pi house < Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiwa·ʔmi;cf. wigwam

Words Nearby wickiup

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use wickiup in a sentence

  • If the wickiup is large enough, and the vegetation covering the roof is wet or green material, it may be safe enough to build a tiny fire inside this type of shelter.

    Winter survival shelters you should know how to build | By Tim MacWelch/Outdoor Life | December 21, 2020 | Popular-Science
  • When Redbird and White Bear returned to their wickiup, the crescent moon had reached the high point of its trail across the sky.

    Shaman | Robert Shea
  • When he reached his wickiup he called Redbird out, and they walked through the camp together.

    Shaman | Robert Shea
  • They left the wickiup and she walked through the camp with her eyes on the ground, too frightened, he supposed, to look about her.

    Shaman | Robert Shea
  • That night Redbird curled up on her solitary pallet of blankets laid over a mat of reeds on one side of the wickiup.

    Shaman | Robert Shea
  • Delgadito turned and entered his wickiup to indicate that Geronimo was dismissed.

    The Story of Geronimo | James Arthur Kjelgaard

British Dictionary definitions for wickiup

wickiup

wikiup or wickyup

/ (ˈwɪkɪˌʌp) /


noun
  1. US and Canadian a crude shelter made of brushwood, mats, or grass and having an oval frame, esp of a kind used by nomadic Indians now in Oklahoma and neighbouring states of the US

Origin of wickiup

1
C19: from Sac, Fox, and Kickapoo wikiyap; compare wigwam

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012