beaver
noun/ˈbiːvə(r)/
/ˈbiːvər/
- [countable] an animal with a wide flat tail and strong teeth. Beavers live in water and on land and can build dams (= barriers across rivers), made of pieces of wood and mud. The beaver is an official symbol of Canada. see also eager beaverTopics Animalsc2
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- [uncountable] the fur of the beaver, used in making hats and clothes
- [countable] (especially North American English, taboo, slang) the area around a woman’s sex organs
Word Originnoun senses 1 to 2 Old English beofor, befor, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch bever and German Biber, from an Indo-European root meaning ‘brown’. noun sense 3 early 20th cent.: of unknown origin.
Check pronunciation:
beaver