beaver

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large furry animal with a flat tail that lives near water and builds dams.

   The beavers built a dam across the small stream.

2. 2
   verb

   To work hard and steadily at something.

   She beavered away at her homework all evening.

Common collocations

• beaver fur Noun + noun

From Middle English bever, from Old English befer, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (“beaver”). Cognate with West Frisian bever, Dutch bever, French bièvre, German Biber, dialectal Swedish bjur. Non-Germanic cognates include Welsh befer, Latin fiber, Lithuanian bẽbras, Russian бобр (bobr), Avestan 𐬠𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬭𐬀 (bauura), and Sanskrit बभ्रु (bábhru, “mongoose; ichneumon”). Slang use to refer to a woman evolved from use to refer to pubic hair, which evolved from use to refer to beards, which evolved from use to refer to the furry animal or…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images