Meanings
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1
noun
a small striped ground squirrel with cheek pouches, native chiefly to North America
A chipmunk darted beneath the porch with seeds packed in its cheeks.
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2
verb
informal: to speed up recorded audio so that voices become unusually high-pitched
The editor chipmunked the vocal track for comic effect.
Thesaurus
Etymology
An early nineteenth-century alteration of chitmunk, borrowed from an Ojibwe word for the animal, related to a description of its headfirst movement. The audio verb alludes to the high-pitched fictional voices of Alvin and the Chipmunks.