Word.ws English Dictionary

beaver

UK/ˈbiːvə//ˈbivɚ/

beaver noun: a semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere. Also the alternative letter-case form of Beaver.

beaver: a semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the...
Image: Tjustorparn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

beaver (countable and uncountable, plural beavers or (senses 1 and 4) beaver)

  1. (countable) A semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere.
    • 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...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...
  2. The fur of the beaver.
    Synonyms:
    castorette
  3. (countable) A hat, of various shapes, made from a felted beaver fur (or later of silk), fashionable in Europe between 1550 and 1850.
    • a broad beaver slouched over his eyes1855–1858, 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
    Synonyms:
    castor, castoreum
  4. (Canada, US) Beaver pelts as an article of exchange or as a standard of value.
  5. Beaver cloth, a heavy felted woollen cloth, used chiefly for making overcoats.
    Synonyms:
    castor
  6. A brown colour, like that of a beaver.
    Synonyms:
    beaver brown, castor
  7. (countable) A move in response to being doubled, in which one immediately doubles the stakes again, keeping the doubling cube on one’s own side of the board.
  8. (countable, slang) A beard or a bearded person.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    beard, beardo, beardy
  9. (historical, slang, uncountable) A game, in which points are scored by spotting beards.
  10. (Canada, US, countable, slang) The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself; (attributively) denoting films or literature featuring nude women.
    • 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)
    Synonyms:
    beav, nest
  11. (US, offensive, slang) A woman, especially one who is sexually attractive.
    • “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

Verb

beaver (third-person singular simple present beavers, present participle beavering, simple past and past participle beavered)

  1. To form a felt-like texture, similar to the way beaver fur is used for felt-making.
    • Without these attentions the woad will not beaver well, a term descriptive of the fineness of the capillary filaments into which it draws out when broken between the finger and thumb.1799, Arthur Young, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Lincoln, London, page 155
  2. To work hard.
    • When A. G. Dickens published his English Reformation in 1964 the archival beavering of a generation of graduate students was given its imprimatur in the claim to understand how the English people felt about religious change—largely, according to Dickens, positively.2017, Felicity Heal, “Changing Interpretations of the British Reformations”, in Ulinka Rublack, editor, The Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN...
  3. (slang, logging) To cut a continuous ring around a tree that one is felling.
  4. After being doubled, to immediately double the stakes again, a move that keeps the doubling cube on one’s own side of the board.
  5. (slang) To spot a beard in a game of beaver.
    • Beavering of foreign visitors does not count. This is a rule, but it is never carried out.1922 October 13, Roanoke World-News, Roanoke, Virginia, retrieved 02 Dec 2022, page 6

Noun (2)

beaver

  1. Butter.
    • Butter – Beaver.[1754, The Scoundrel’s Dictionary, London, page 15

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Beaver

Beaver (countable and uncountable, plural Beavers)

  1. (countable) A surname.
  2. A census-designated place in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska.
  3. A town in Carroll County, Arkansas.
  4. A minor city in Amaqua Township, Boone County, Iowa.
  5. A township and census-designated place therein, in Barton County, Kansas.
  6. An unincorporated community in Floyd County, Kentucky.
  7. A township and unincorporated community therein, in Bay County, Michigan.
  8. An unincorporated community in Baldwin Township, Delta County, Michigan.
  9. An unincorporated community in Whitewater Township, Winona County, Minnesota.
  10. A village in Pike County, Ohio.
  11. A town, the county seat of Beaver County, Oklahoma.
  12. An unincorporated community in Tillamook County, Oregon.
Show 8 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A borough, the county seat of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
  2. A city, the county seat of Beaver County, Utah.
  3. An unincorporated community in Clallam County, Washington.
  4. A census-designated place in Raleigh County, West Virginia.
  5. A town in Clark County, Wisconsin.
  6. A town and unincorporated community therein, in Marinette County, Wisconsin.
  7. A town in Polk County, Wisconsin.
  8. A number of other townships in the United States, listed under Beaver Township.

Noun (3) capitalized: Beaver

Beaver (plural Beavers)

  1. A native or resident of the American state of Oregon.
  2. A member of the youngest wing of the Scout movement, composed of groups for children, traditionally boys, of approximately five to seven years of age.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Beaver

Beaver

  1. (dated) The Dane-zaa people, indigenous to northern Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.

Noun (4) capitalized: Beaver

Beaver (plural Beavers)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of beaver (“beard-spotting game”).

Also used as

beaver is also the alternative letter-case form of Beaver.

beaver is also the alternative spelling of bevor.

beaver meaning in Hindi, Tagalog, Arabic and Malay

beaver in Hindi

semiaquatic rodent
ऊदबिलाव ūdbilāv, ऊद ūd

beaver in Tagalog

semiaquatic rodent
kastor

beaver in Arabic

semiaquatic rodent
قُنْدُس qundus, سَمُّور sammūr

beaver in Malay

semiaquatic rodent
beaver, memerang, berang-berang
More languagesFewer languages
beaver in Indonesian
biwara
beaver in Persian
سگ آبی sag-e âbi, بیدستر bidastar, ببر babar
beaver in Thai
บีเวอร์ bii-wə̂ə
beaver in Vietnamese
hải ly
beaver in Myanmar
ဘီဗာဖျံ bhibahpyam

Examples of beaver in a sentence

  • 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:

All 40 example sentences with beaver

Synonyms of beaver

All synonyms of beaver

Forms of beaver

Noun
pluralbeavers
plural error-unknown-tagbeaver
alternative formBeaver
pluralBeavers
alternative formbeaver
Verb
third-person singular presentbeavers
present participlebeavering
past participlebeavered
pastbeavered
Proper noun
pluralBeavers
alternative formBeever

Plural of beaver: beavers

Origin of beaver

From Middle English bever, from Old English befer, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (“beaver”). 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”). 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 bevor.

* As an English surname, capitalization of beaver. This sense is also translated from several Native American names such as Cheyenne homa'e and Creek Echaswvlke of the same meaning. Doublet of Bieber and Bever. * Also as an English surname, from the placename Belvoir in Leicestershire.

Words formed from beaver

Phrases with beaver

Words that rhyme with beaver

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about beaver

What does beaver mean?
Beaver means a semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere.
What is beaver in Hindi?
Beaver in Hindi is ऊदबिलाव (ūdbilāv), ऊद (ūd). See Beaver meaning in Hindi.
How do you use beaver in a sentence?
Let’s get some of that Saturday night beaver.
What part of speech is beaver?
Beaver can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce beaver?
Beaver is pronounced /ˈbiːvə/ (UK).
What is the plural of beaver?
The plural of beaver is beavers.

Words near beaver in the dictionary

  1. beavage
  2. Beavan
  3. beave
  4. Beaven
  5. Beavens
  6. beaver
  7. beaver away
  8. Beaver City
  9. Beaver County
  10. Beaver Creek
  11. beaver dam

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beaver (page history and authors); Beaver (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-beaver.ogg.

Cite this entry: “beaver.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beaver. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.