DCHP-1 Online

tripper

• 1 n. a man other than a permanent employee, taken on for single trip with a brigade (def. 1).

  See also: tripman  

  • 1834  (1947)  The Indian Trippers invariably deliver their goods here in better condition than the Red River freemen. . . .
  • 1893  To carry out his contract he used to hire hundreds of Indians and half-breeds as boatmen, or "trippers" as they are generally called.
  • 1908  On the 11th we set off for Athabasca landing, accompanied by a little fleet of trippers' and traders' canoes. . . .
  • 1963  When flour was procurable, the trippers integrated the solid pemmican in a frying pan by heat. . . .

• 2a n. Esp. Fur Trade a man in charge of a train of dogs, a packet, or a swing (def. 1).

  See also: swing  

  • 1874  (1925)  Here are our "trippers," as they are called, and all ready to start, and my Bishop in his fur cap and warm wraps which I have made for him.
  • 1934  . . . and Alex Budd, head dog-driver and tripper for the Company. . . .
  • 1938  Eleven or twelve hours a day on the trail is the aim of the winter tripper, and when the sun sets at 3.30, one must roll out early if one is to keep this program and still get camp started before dark.

• 2b n. Esp. North a person who travels the bush trails.

  See also: trip  

  • 1896  Our first day's travel was up the Mackenzie where we experienced some difficulty in finding sufficient fuel, the dry timber having been used by the many trippers hauling fish from Big Island to Providence.
  • 1912  The tenderfoot is betrayed by his fire just as surely as the experienced tripper is made known by his.
  • 1944  "Some tripper must have lost it." "Tripper?" muttered Tom. "Trippers never use this old route now. Perhaps some hunter."

• 3 n. a company employee, often an Indian, who made fur-buying trips to the Indian hunting camps in the forest.

  See also: runner ((2))  

  • 1921  But before the fort-hunter had returned with the telescope, the snowy veil suddenly thinned and revealed the gray figure of a tripper coming up the bank.
  • 1938  Soon the ubiquitous French fur trader, "tripper" and trapper roamed everywhere.