[Alteration, by association with WOOD sb.1, of American Indian name: cf. Cree wuchak (Watkins), otchock (J. Richardson), WEJACK.] A common N. American species of marmot, Arctomys monax, of a large stout form, which burrows in the ground, and hibernates in winter.

1

1689.  in Hist. Coll. Essex Inst. (Mass.), IV. 236/1. A parcell of meadow commonly called Woodchuck meadow.

2

1778.  J. Carver, Trav. N. Amer., xviii. 454. The Woodchuck is a ground animal of the fur kind, about the size of a martin.

3

1819.  Warden, Acc. U. S., I. 225. Marmot of Maryland, Arctomys monax,… known by the names of woodchuck and ground hog.

4

1855.  Longf., Hiaw., VI. 125. O’er these logs we cannot clamber; Not a woodchuck could get through them.

5

a. 1864.  Hawthorne, Septimius (1883), 230. Caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and woodchucks.

6