Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Often Offensive A Native American infant or very young child.
- noun A cradleboard.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A North American Indian babe or young child, commonly carried by its mother bound up and strapped to a board, or hung up so as to be out of harm's way.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A babe or young child of Indian parentage in North America.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
baby - noun
backpack (UK)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an American Indian infant
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 papoose.
Examples
-
But if a child is very disruptive and they can be VERY fussy, a papoose is a safer way to control the patient.
Sedation in Pediatric Dentistry Dr. Dean Brandon 2007
-
Occasionally, "papoose" or "squaw" is used for given names, or a number is used in place of the given name.
Archive 2007-06-01 2007
-
He looked eagerly and anxiously at them, as if seeking for the "papoose" who was a little larger than Russ.
Six Little Bunkers at Uncle Fred's Laura Lee Hope
-
"papoose," or child, wigwam, &c. &c., though it is doubtful whether they belonged at all to any Indian dialect, are much used by both white and red men in their Intercourse.
The Prairie James Fenimore Cooper 1820
-
Among the western Eskimo, "the mother who loses her nursling places the poor 'papoose' in a beautifully ornamented box, which she fastens on her back and carries about her for a long while.
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day Alexander F. Chamberlain
-
I wish I knew what he meant by that 'papoose' he's always talking about. "
Six Little Bunkers at Uncle Fred's Laura Lee Hope
-
[Footnote: An Indian baby, but "papoose" is not an Indian word.
Lost in the Backwoods Catharine Parr Strickland Traill 1850
-
[Footnote: An Indian baby; but "papoose" is not an Indian word.
Canadian Crusoes Catharine Parr Strickland Traill 1850
-
A half-black, half-Cherokee papoose that cost you 35 grand.
Colorado David McKenna 2011
-
There were little blankets designed to wrap the baby like a papoose, but I worried that I would wrap the child too tight and suffocate her.
Staceyann Chin: Surviving Halloween, Bedrest, and The Baby Registry Staceyann Chin 2011
treeseed commented on the word papoose
A papoose (from the Algonquian papoos, meaning "child") is an English loanword whose present meaning (to non-native Americans) is "an American Indian child" (regardless of tribe). The word came originally from the Narragansett.
_Wikipedia
February 19, 2008
madmouth commented on the word papoose
"It is an Eskimo papoose, darling!" -Eddie Monsoon from Absolutely Fabulous
April 13, 2009