sb. Also snow shoe. [f. SNOW sb.1 Cf. G. schneeschuh, Sw. snösko.]
1. a. A kind of foot-gear enabling the wearer to walk on the surface of snow, esp. one of a pair of racket-shaped frames of light wood, strung and netted with narrow strips of raw hide, used by the Indians and others in North America.
1674. Josselyn, Two Voy. New-Eng., 55. A crust upon the snow sufficient to bear a man walking with snow-shoos upon it.
1681. Grew, Musæum, IV. iii. 375. A SNOW-SHOOE, used in Greenland, and some other places.
1707. in Sewall’s Diary (1879), II. 60. They made her put on Snow Shoes, which to manage, requires more than ordinary agility.
1773. Hist. Brit. Dom. N. Amer., II. 59. In winter, when the snow would bear, they put on snow-shoes, which were made like a large tennis-racket, and laced them to their feet with the guts of deer.
1806. Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), 69. Who … went so fast as to render it difficult, for the men with snow shoes, to keep up with them.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), I. xxx. 254. The snow shoes are made in a great many forms,… of a hoop or hoops, bent around for the frame [etc.].
1884. S. E. Dawson, Hand-bk. Canada, 230. It is quite usual in Montreal for young ladies to walk on snow-shoes in company with friends.
b. One of a pair of ski.
1864. Dasent, Jest & Earnest (1873), II. 185. I can … ride, swim, glide on snowshoon.
1901. H. Seebohm, Birds of Siberia, v. 44. On snow-shoes we got along comfortably…. They were about seven feet long and six inches wide.
2. U.S. The snow-shoe rabbit (see 3).
1888. Lees & Clutterbuck, B. C. 1887, xxiii. 261. The Snowshoe is an animal perhaps unknown to some of our readers. He is the largest kind of alpine hare.
3. attrib., as snow-shoe excursion, expedition, step, track, etc.; snow-shoe disease, evil (see quot. 1809); snow-shoe foot, a foot (in certain animals) adapted for walking on snow; snowshoe rabbit (see quot. 1889).
1760. Lett. to Hon. Brigadier General, 5. The Snow-Shoes Expeditions of America.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 68. I was now troubled with a disorder, called the snow-shoe evil, proceeding from an unusual strain on the tendons of the leg, occasioned by the weight of the snow-shoe, and brings on inflammation.
1889. Cent. Dict., s.v. Rabbit, Snow-shoe rabbit, that variety of the American varying hare which is found in the Rocky Mountains…. It has been described as a distinct species, Lepus bairdi.
1894. F. M. Turner, in Outing, XXIV. 271/2. A scuffling, sliding, snowshoe step.
1897. Outing, XXIX. 357/1. In a mild climate the snowshoe foot might frequently be a serious drawback.
Hence Snow-shoe v. intr., to travel on snow-shoes or ski; Snow-shoed a., wearing snow-shoes; Snow-shoeing vbl. sb., the action or practice of travelling on snow-shoes, esp. as an exercise or sport; also attrib.; Snow-shoer, one who uses, or travels on, snow-shoes.
1880. C. B. Berry, The Other Side, 214. As we *snowshoed over Lake Joseph.
1890. N. Hibbs, in G. O. Shields, Big Game N. Amer., 41. The depth of snow … does not enter into account when snow-shoeing.
1896. C. W. Whitney, in Harper’s Mag., April, 726/2. The spectacle of a *snow-shoed Indian chasing the fleetest quadruped on earth.
1885. W. G. Beers, in Century Mag., XXIX. 523. The vicissitudes of lacrosse, *snow-shoeing, and tobogganing.
1887. Cornhill Mag., March, 267. Which outings are the snowshoeing events of the season.
1884. S. E. Dawson, Hand-bk. Canada, 230. A strong turn-out of *snow-shoers making a bee line across the country is a very picturesque sight.
1897. Outing, XXIX. 360. Two fine club-houses … where snowshoers have long fraternized.
