Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A popular name of the American red squirrel, Sciurus hudsonius, which inhabits British America and the northerly parts of the United States.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus Hudsonius, formerly Sciurus Hudsonius); -- so called from its cry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small squirrel, Tamiasciurus douglasi, that lives in evergreen forests of northwest United States

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Imitative.]

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Examples

  • Occasionally a chickaree or chipmunk scurried out from among the trunks of the great pines to pick up the cones which he had previously bitten off from the upper branches; a noisy Clarke's crow clung for some time in the top of a hemlock; and occasionally flocks of cross-bill went by, with swift undulating flight and low calls.

    The Big-Horn Sheep 1896

  • He paused every few steps to utter the peculiar cry which has given then the name of chickaree, for they often repeat it, and are noisy little creatures.

    Rural Hours 1887

  • Before he could make his aim sure, the chickaree started to run along the limb, which was large and covered with thick, shaggy bark; but the muzzle of the weapon swerved slowly in a corresponding direction, and just as the game gathered itself to make a leap, the explosion came.

    Through Forest and Fire Wild-Woods Series No. 1 Edward Sylvester Ellis 1878

  • We heard the sound of the chickaree, and a few faintly lisping birds, and also of ducks in the water about the island.

    The Maine Woods 1858

  • It was a purely wild and primitive American sound, as much as the barking of a chickaree, and I could not understand a syllable of it; but Paugus, had he been there, would have understood it.

    The Maine Woods 1858

  • As I walk amid hickories, even in August, I hear the sound of green pig-nuts falling from time to time, cut off by the chickaree over my head.

    Excursions Henry David Thoreau 1839

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