woodchuck1 (wudchuk)

[Also woodshock, applied to a different quadruped; a corruption, simulating E. wood1, of wejack, weejack, repr. an Amer. Ind. name, of which the Cree form is rendered otchock by Sir John Richardson.] The Arctomys monax, a large rodent quadruped of the family Sciuridæ. It is from 15 to 18 inches long, of very stout, heavy form, with brownish and grayish tints above, and reddish-brown below. It feeds on vegetables of many kinds, burrows in the ground, and hibernates in winter. Also called ground - hog and chuck. See cut under Arctomys. - Woodchuck day, in popular myth and rural tradition, the day on which the woodchuck first comes out of its hole after its hibernation, this action being regarded as affording a weather-prophecy. The saying goes that if the woodchuck sees its shadow on that day, it retires to its burrow for six weeks longer, which implies that warm, sunshiny weather very early in the spring, or in February, arousing the woodchuck from its torpidity, is likely to be followed by a cold or late season. Also ground -hog day. woodchuck2 (wud'chuk), n. [Prob. wood-chuck (wud'chuk), n. In a lathe, a chuck adapted for holding a piece of wood to be oper ated on. blows of a mallet. O'Bryne, Artisan's Handbook, p. 195. The stoppers are fixed in a hollow wood - chuck by slight