DCHP-1 Online
prairie dog 
1 Obs. a small fox, Vulpes velox hebes, once common on the prairies.
See also: kit fox (def. 1a)
- 1823 The Fulvous-necked Fox . . . is the Prairie Dog of the French settlers in America.
2 † a marmot, Cynomys ludovicianus, once common on the southern prairies.
- 1833 . . . the wistonwish or prairie marmot . . . is called prairie dog by Sergeant Guss and Lieut. Pike and it is also the barking squirrel of Lewis and Clarke.
- 1887 . . . looked at me as if he were a prairie dog of yonder town of quaint, brown, sleek-furred marmots, whose cry is like that of chattering angry birds.
- 1961 "I've seen me . . . lying at the edge of a field in Saskatchewan spying on the prairie dogs. . . ."
- 1823 The Fulvous-necked Fox . . . is the Prairie Dog of the French settlers in America.