DCHP-2

trail-breaker North DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1 n.

  a man on snowshoes who runs ahead of a dog team making a passable track in new or deep snow.

  See also: forerunner  

  • 1931  "Dinner," say the trail breakers; well, they ought to know, they are bearing the brunt of the work.
  • 1963  Boys of about thirteen are usually the trail breakers of the group [Naskapi Indians], which constantly moves in the eternal search for food. . . .

• 2 n.

  See quote.

  See also: trail shoe  

  • 1931  . . . slipping with deft ankle movements into the bridles of an immense pair of trail breakers (large snowshoes), [he] is away.

• 3 n.

  one who leads the way into new fields; pathfinder.

  See also: trailblazer  (def. 3)  

  • 1959  It is on the subject of pioneers--­trailbreakers, bushwhackers, sodbusters, homesteaders--that the slick "free enterprise" propagandist . . . waxes most eloquent. . . .