snowhouse

Arctic

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

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1n.

a domed structure built of blocks of hard snow; an Eskimo snowhouse. [See picture at igloo.]

See: igloo(meaning 1a)

Quotations

1771

I looked at my traps down the river, and then proceeded to Lyon Head, where I visited my Indian friends in their snowhouse.

1819

The Esquimaux now began to build a snow-house about thirty paces from the beach.

1966

The Eskimos in the area [Boothia Peninsula] . . . stay in tents in the summer and snowhouses in the winter

2n.

a building made of snow blocks and intended for communal gatherings.

1962

This kept up . . . until a large section of the snow house roof caved in from the heat of the gathering.

1964

At Pelly Bay . . . great snow houses are erected and the drummer goes to the middle of a stage. . . .