beaver – English noun declension

English noun forms of beaver

Noun: beaver
Singularbeaver
Pluralbeavers; beaver

Sample Sentences

  • Then, for the safeguard of his personage,
  • He did appoint a warlike equipage
  • Of foreign beasts, not in the forest bred,
  • But part by land and part by water fed;
  • For tyranny is with strange aid supported.
  • Then unto him all monstrous beasts resorted
  • Bred of two kinds, as Griffons, Minotaurs,
  • Crocodiles, Dragons, Beavers, and Centaurs:
  • With those himself he strengthened mightily,
  • That fear he need no force of enemy. [1591, Edmund Spenser, “Prosopopoia; or, Mother Hubberd’s Tale”, in Edmund Spenser, edited by Charles Cowden Clarke, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, published 1868, page 112, lines 1117–1126:]
  • a broad beaver slouched over his eyes [1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC:]
  • The woman's hair and woman's beaver had both been jerked off, exposing the cropped head of a man... [1896, Owen Rhoscomyl, For the White Rose of Arno:]
  • The beards were false ones. I could see the elastic going over their ears. In other words, I had fallen among a band of criminals who were not wilful beavers, but had merely assumed the fungus for purposes of disguise. [1936, P. G. Wodehouse, Laughing Gas:]
  • Finally it came on. It was a beauty, a beaver flick made in the late 1970s. It was called Big Black Leather Splits. [1969, Harlan Ellison, “A Boy and His Dog”, in The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, New York: Open Road Media, published 2014, →ISBN:]
  • Between you and me, uh, she might have been fifteen, but when you get that little red beaver right up there in front of you, I don’t think it's crazy at all and I don’t think you do either. [1975, Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman, directed by Miloš Forman, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (motion picture), spoken by Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson):]
  • Let’s get some of that Saturday night beaver. [1997, Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights (motion picture), spoken by Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly):]
  • The store sold beaver books, fuck-suck books, homo books, novels, films, slides, playing cards, dildoes, cock rings, S&M gear, and French ticklers. [2004, James Ellroy, Destination: Morgue! L.A. Tales, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, pages 127–128:]
  • […] once she wore none at all, swears to this day that he saw her beaver that fateful Friday night. [2010, Dennis McFadden, Hart’s Grove: Stories:]
  • “10-4, Beaver [CB talk for a female], we’re all going down to Plains tomorrow after Jimmy Carter wins.” [1977 January 13, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, “Jimmy Carter: New South Burn”, in Rolling Stone, [San Francisco or New York], retrieved 01 Dec 2022:]

Etymology

1. From Middle English bever, from Old English befer, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (“beaver”).
2. Cognate with West Frisian bever, Dutch bever, French bièvre, German Biber, dialectal Swedish bjur. Non-Germanic cognates include Welsh befer, Latin fiber, Lithuanian bẽbras, Russian бобр (bobr), Avestan 𐬠𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬭𐬀 (bauura), and Sanskrit बभ्रु (bábhru, “mongoose; ichneumon”).
3. Slang use to refer to a woman evolved from use to refer to pubic hair, which evolved from use to refer to beards, which evolved from use to refer to the furry animal or its fur. See: Middle English Nouns 'bever', Old English Nouns 'befer', Dutch Nouns 'bever', French Nouns 'bièvre', German Nouns 'Biber', Latin Nouns 'fiber', Russian Nouns 'бобр'.

Verbs referencing "beaver"

Norwegian Bokmål Nouns bever, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns bever, Latvian Nouns bebrs.