DCHP-1

pushup push-up

n. a breathing-hole made in the ice by muskrats and kept open by means of tufts of grass and other vegetation stuffed in the opening.
See also: muskrat house rat-hill
- 1937 ". . . There's no danger of catching her either; she [a fox] didn't go near the push-ups."
- 1948 After the surface of the lake is frozen over, the muskrat starts to build his push-ups, which he keeps open so that he may come up to feed. From the bottom of the lake he gathers vegetation which he pushes up through a hole in the ice. As the vegetation freezes the push-up is formed. Constant movements up and down keep the hole open, but if it should freeze too much he just uses those very sharp teeth of his to cut away the ice and make the hole bigger. This he can do only from the top and bottom edges, and so he learns to keep his hole fairly large.
- 1956 With two quick motions of his trapping hatchet, old Napão knocked the pushup apart and clubbed the squirming rat on the head.
- 1959 He was more at ease with a bullwhip out on the trail than cooped up like a rat in a push-up, shoving a pen in his office at Fort Smith.