Also womat, wombach, wo(o)mback. [Native Australian name.] Any of the burrowing marsupials of the genus Phascolomys, native to South Australia and Tasmania, characterized by a thick heavy body, short legs, and a general resemblance to a small bear.
1798. Flinders, in Voy. Terra Australis (1814), Introd. p. cxxviii. Point Womat, a rocky projection of Cape-Barren Island, where a number of the new animals, called womat, were seen. [Ibid., p. cxxxv. Called by the natives, womat, wombat, or womback, according to the different dialects, or perhaps to the different rendering of the wood rangers who brought the information.]
1827. in Bischoff, Van Diemen’s Land (1832), 175. The dogs had caught them three kangaroos, and two badgers or woombacks.
1852. J. West, Hist. Tasmania, I. 324. The Wombat, commonly called in the colony Badger.
1896. Gosse, Critical Kit-Kats, 267. Pater has often reminded me of some such armadillo or wombat.
attrib. and Comb. 1847. G. F. Angas, Savage Life, I. 66. Wombat burrows.
1859. C. G. Rossetti, Goblin Market, xvii. Cat-like and rat-like, Ratel- and wombat-like.
1870. Gordon, Bush Ballads, From the Wreck, 24. Look out for the holes On the wombat hills.
