beaver¹ n [ = Castor canadensis caecator]. For combs. see: OED cod sb¹ 4 b ~ cod obs (1634, 1646); DC ~ cuttings (Nfld: 1770-); ~ house (1691-); ~ root (Nf1d: 1822-); ~ tail snowshoe (1941-).
   Attrib, comb beaver cod: inguinal or groin sac of a beaver from which castor is obtained.
   1612 Guy 55 A little peece of fleshe was broughte away, which was fownde to be a beaver cod.
   beaver cuttings: trees, saplings, branches or stumps cut by a beaver.
   [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 22 I named it Watson Pond, and was greatly surprised to find beaver cuttings by the side of it: for, Mr Lucas, who lived a year at Chateau, assured me, that there were no beavers in this country. 1792 ibid Gloss i, ix Beaver-cuttings. A furrier's term for those trees or sticks which have been cut down by beavers. It is also used for the stumps which are left. 1947 TANNER 418 The Labrador beaver is a very cautious animal; yet the rich, long grass growing in the centre of the 'beaver-meadow' and the fresh traces on the barked willows, 'beaver cuttings,' reveal its presence.
   beaver hat (man), ~ vessel: two-masted vessel of 60-80 tons (54-72 m tons), rigged for the seal-hunt with a square topsail on the foremast.
   [1900 OLIVER & BURKE] 46 Topsail schooners (beaver hat men)—this last named so-called from having only one square sail on the foremast. 1916 MURPHY 11-12 Some of the schooners carried a square sail, and were called 'beaver hats' or 'beaver hat men,' the majority of the vessels were brigs and brigantines. 1937 DEVINE 9 ~ vessel. A fore-topsail schooner.
   beaver house: lodge or den of a beaver.
    [1663] 1963 YONGE 135 I once lost myself in the wood, and wandered to a Beaver house... I saw they had cut down large branches of trees [and covered] them with great quantities of earth, boughs, and rubble. [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 15 We took a walk to a pond which lies upon the brook, and not far from the mouth of it, to look at a new beaverhouse, in which the salmoniers had killed four beavers. 1861 DE BOILIEU 81 The beaver-house consists of three room or cells. The ground floor is (to use an Hibernianism) in the water, the floor above is used for feeding, and the third as a sleeping-chamber. Most of the beaver-houses have an inlet and an outlet. 1888 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 34 We came across a fresh beaver house but did not see the beaver themselves, though we waited till dusk. T 203/5-65 In the winter you'll go to a beaver's house, you'll cut a big hole in the ice and you tie your trap so far up from the end o' the stick, and you'd shove that in the mouth, the doorway o' the beaver house.
   beaver more: yellow pond-lily (Nuphar variegatum) (1893 N S Inst Sci viii, 364); cp MORE n.
   [c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 26 [More is] also applied to the roots of the pond lilly, or Beaver More.
   beaver(s) pride: see beaver cod; PRIDE.
   beaver root: (a) any of several varieties of water lily; see also beaver more above; (b) root of a water lily used for medicinal purposes.
   [1822] 1856 CORMACK 20 They also subsist on the large roots of the waterlilly, Nymphea odorata; called by the Indians beaver-root. 1846 TOCQUE 291 The whole surface of the water was covered with the leaves of the beaver root (Nuphar Luteum). 1865 CAMPBELL 138 Beaver-root—the root of the yellow lily—was nibbled and left about in scraps. T 172/4-65 You see those lilies in the pond? That's beaver root. They flowers in the summer, comes out with a big yellow bulb, and then they turns with a white flower. C 75-132 A tonic was made from elder berries, juniper bush, beaver roots, bog beans, sweet mores, sasberella roots and Indian tea. 1976 GUY 142 In their kitchen they had bottles hanging up back of the stove with beaver root in them. 1977 Inuit Land Use 303 Beavers inhabit low-lying marshy areas that have plenty of willows, birch, poplar, aspens, spruce, and the 'beaver roots' which grow on the bottoms of ponds and on which beavers feed.
   beaver tail(ed racquet): type of Labrador snowshoe with an oval frame.
   1884 STEARNS 149 [The beaver-tailed racquet] is a bent bow of wood with two crossbars, the intervening spaces being thickly woven of deerskin thong, except a small opening where the toe goes, and which is below the middle of the upper bar. There are great varieties of form, called usually from some fancied resemblance to the tail of an animal. 1910 TOWNSEND 173 The Labrador snow-shoe or racquette is almost everywhere tailless or nearly so... Some of them, however, have short rounded tails and are appropriately called 'beaver-tails.' P 118-67 I guess it's time to put on the beavertails.

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