babbish* n also babbage, babeesh DC babiche 'strips of leather ... used for laces' [Micmac] (1806-). Strips of animal hide woven to form the filling of snowshoes; cp TIBBAGE.
   [1886] LLOYD 78 The space outside the bars [of the snowshoe] are filled with more finely cut skin than the middle space, the Indian term for which is tibeesh, while the coarser filling of the middle space is called babeesh. 1897 J A Folklore x, 203 Babbage used to the northward to denote the plaiting of a snowshoe. P 202-65 Babish: strips of goat or deer skin for snowshoes. C 75-136 Babich: long, narrow strips of cow skin used to fill homemade snowshoes.

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