marmot

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various stocky, coarse-furred, burrowing rodents of the genus Marmota, having short legs and ears and short bushy tails and found throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A rodent quadruped of the genus Arctomys; a bear-mouse, ground-hog, or woodchuck. There are several species, of Europe, Asia, and North America: they are the largest living representatives of the Sciuridœ, or squirrel family, of stout thickset form, with short bushy tail. They are terrestrial and fossorial, living in underground burrows, generally in open ground and often in communities, and hibernate in winter. The species to which the name was originally given is Arctomys marmotta or A. alpinus. inhabiting the Alps and Pyrenees. A. bobac is the Asiatic marmot, occurring also in parts of Europe, especially in Russia. North America as at least three species: the common woodchuck or ground-hog, A. monax, found abundantly in many parts of the United States and Canada; the yellow-bellied marmot of the Rocky Mountains, A. flaviventris; and the large hoary marmot or whistler of northwestern America, A. pruinosus. Besides the foregoing, some of the larger species of the related genera Cynomys and Spermophilus, which include the prairie-dogs and marmot-squirrels, are sometimes called marmots. See cut under Arctomys.
2. n. The Cape cony, Hyrax capensis: a misnomer. Kolbe, Vosmaer, Buffon, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of several large ground-dwelling rodents of the genera Marmota and Cynomys in the squirrel family.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any rodent of the genus Marmota (formerly Arctomys) of the subfamily Sciurinae. The common European marmot (Marmota marmotta) is about the size of a rabbit, and inhabits the higher regions of the Alps and Pyrenees. The bobac is another European species. The common American species (Marmota monax) is the woodchuck (also called groundhog), but the name marmot is usually used only for the western variety.
2. n. Any one of several species of ground squirrels or gophers of the genus Spermophilus; also, the prairie dog.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. stocky coarse-furred burrowing rodent with a short bushy tail found throughout the northern hemisphere; hibernates in winter