Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rodent mammal of the family Haplodontidæ, Haplodon rufus, inhabiting Washington and Oregon and parts of California
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A peculiar gregarious burrowing rodent (
Haplodon rufus ), native of the coast region of the Northwestern United States. It somewhat resembles a muskrat or marmot, but has only a rudimentary tail. Its head is broad, its eyes are small and its fur is brownish above, gray beneath. It constitutes the familyHaplodontidæ . Called alsoboomer ,showt'l , andmountain beaver .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun bulky nocturnal burrowing rodent of uplands of the Pacific coast of North America; the most primitive living rodent
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sewellel.
Examples
-
This extinct mammal, related to the living sewellel, is the only known horned rodent and the smallest horned mammal.
-
The name "sewellel" was applied to the robes which they made from the skins; the animal is called "show'tl," by some Indian tribes. —
Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 1904
-
The southern part of British Columbia contains the mule deer of western North America (_Mazama macrotis_), and a very strange rodent, the sewellel or mountain beaver (_Haplodon_), a creature distantly allied to squirrels, marmots, and beavers, but restricted in its distribution to a few parts of California, Oregon, and British
Pioneers in Canada Harry Hamilton Johnston 1892
-
1 The sewellel (Haplodon rufus) belongs to a family which seems to be intermediate between those of the squirrel and the beaver.
Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 1904
mollusque commented on the word sewellel
The mountain beaver.
December 2, 2007