ground-hog
1. = aard-vark.
| 1840 tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 125 Only one species is known of this genus..which the Dutch colonists style the Ground Hog. |
2. The American marmot (
Arctomys).
| 1784 J. Filson Kentucke 28 Nor are the animals common to other parts wanting, such as foxes,..ground⁓hogs, pole-cats, and oppossums. 1789 Maryland Jrnl. 13 Nov. (Advt.) (Th.), A Monack, or Ground-Hog, presented [to Peale's Museum] by Mr. Johnston. 1807 P. Gass Jrnl. ii. 25 Two of our hunters went out and killed an animal called a prarow, about the size of a ground hog. 1843 Marryat M. Violet II. 226 We had not met with one [buffalo], nor even with a ground-hog. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Woodchuck, the ground hog, a rodent mammal of the marmot tribe. 1884 Stand. Nat. Hist. V. 122 The marmots proper, wood chucks, or ground-hogs are the largest and heaviest animals of the family [Sciuridæ]. |
3. A slang designation for various workmen whose occupation keeps them on the ground. Also
spec. a caisson worker.
U.S.| 1926 Amer. Speech I. 651/2 Ground hogs, men who work in compressed air at caisson work. 1931 Ibid. VII. 48 ‘Tie men’ who camp far out from the main camps are called ‘Ground Hogs’ or ‘Pole Cats’. 1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 92 Ground hog, a rail⁓road brakeman. 1934 Webster, Ground hog, a man who works under air pressure in caisson sinking or shield tunnelling. Called also sand hog. 1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (Second Suppl.) xi. 713 A brakeman is a..ground-hog. Ibid. 718 A lineman's helper..who never leaves the ground is a..groundhog. 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang, Ground-hog, a pilot who does not like to fly. Early aviator use... A railroad brake⁓man. |
4. Comb. ground-hog case U.S., a desperate or urgent affair;
Ground-hog Day N. Amer., (see
quots. 1871, 1948).
| 1885 C. A. Siringo Texas Cow Boy 125 Dangerous to cross. But the wagons being over made it a *ground hog case. 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. x. 234 ‘Ground-hog case,’ said the Galway man. ‘Badly lighted port, Danny.’ 1927 Amer. Speech II. 356/1 [W. Virginia dial.], Ground hog case, something that has to be settled immediately. |
| 1871 Schele de Vere Americanisms 369 Candlemas is known as *Ground-hog Day, for on that day the ground-hog comes annually out of his hole, after a long winter nap, to look for his shadow. If he perceives it, he retires again to his burrow, which he does not leave for six weeks—weeks necessarily of stormy weather. But if he does not see his shadow, for lack of sunshine, he stays out of his hole till he can, and the weather is sure to become mild and pleasant. 1948 A. L. Rand Mammals Eastern Rockies 128 Groundhog day is February 2. Current belief has it that if on this day the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be 6 weeks more of winter; if it does not see its shadow, winter will be soon gone. 1965 Kingston (Ont.) Whig-Standard 2 Feb. 11/1 Today is groundhog day. |