DCHP-3

soddy†

West, Slang
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1n.

a rude dwelling consisting of an excavation, often in the bank of a coulee, etc., roofed with sods.

See: sod house(def. 2)

Quotations

1958
. . . he sold out his quarter section and his "soddy," a half-buried hovel made of tough prairie sod and roofed with poplar poles and more sod.
1958
A soddy that poked its low brow no higher than the tailings of a gopher's burrow would have suited me better.
1966
It wasn't much of an abode, but it was better than some of the soddies, further south, where pioneers had dug a hole in the ground and covered it over with sods and earth.
2n.

a rude dwelling having walls of sods and a roof either of sods supported by wooden rafters or, sometimes, canvas.

Quotations

1965
The true soddy had four sod walls. The building material came from a twelve- or fourteen-inch furrow ploughed from a dried-up slough bottom.