DCHP-1 Online

caribou caribous or caribou. [< Cdn F < Algonk.; cf. Micmac halibū pawer, scratcher]

• 1 n. any of several species of North American reindeer, genus Rangifer, native to Canada, Alaska, and formerly to Maine and Mass.

  See also: carreboeuf  moose-deer  reindeer  tuktu (def. 1)  tundra deer  

  • 1665  (1885)  We killed severall . . . Carriboucks. . . .
  • 1744  They . . . live by Fishing, and a kind of Deer they call Cariboux. . . .
  • 1888  In Quebec two moose, two cariboo, three deer was the largest bag allowed per man per annum. . . .
  • 1964  Some fear the herds will disappear from the province [New Brunswick] entirely, as the caribou did early in this century.

• 2 n. the flesh of the caribou; caribou meat.

  • 1896  Caribou, I may say in passing, I consider of all wild meats the one that one tires of least.
  • 1957  The last two places in N.W.T. where the PEOPLE should be denied their daily bread--caribou, should be the Hospitals for their sick and the schools for their children. It is forbidden by the Game Law to serve the patients caribou!

• 3 n. the skin or hide of the caribou.

  • 1808  (1960)  . . . their clothing consisted of dressed leather . . . with robes of . . . Carribo. . . .
  • 1898  Her parkee, made of Caribou, it is a lively fit. / And she's all right from muck-a-luck unto her dainty mit. / This lovely Klooch is fond of Hooch, and makes it very well.
  • 1947  The trousers were of caribou. . .

• 4 n. Que., Slang a potent mixture of whisky-blanc, and red wine.

  See also: loup-garou (def. 2)  whisky blanc  whisky-wine  

  • 1952  Traditional drink of the season [in French Canada] is caribou. . . .
  • 1960  . . . this is filled with that formidable Quebec concoction, Caribou. . . .
  • 1965  In the old days, when . . . caribou overcame one reporter, Pop pieced together a . . . story . . . and wired it off to save the reporter's neck.