ursicide

Noun

ursicide (countable and uncountable, plural ursicides)

1. (rare) The killing of a bear.
   • Bruin having perpetrated a charge worthy of Waterloo, is toddling off as fast as a rather extensive morning’s repast will allow him. / Having made sure of whatever remains of the wreck of eatables and drinkables by consuming them on the spot, a proceeding that in a great measure restores my...1847, J. Willyams Grylls, “The Out-Station; or, Jaunts in the Jungle”, in W. Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, part the third, London: Chapman and Hall, […]...
   • Master Will Altemose, of Tunkhannock, Pa., seems to be the most promising lad of his age in the country. His exploit of nonchalantly chopping up a she bear and two cubs the other day marks him as a person of courage and resource. On the day in question Master Altemose was chopping wood, and not...1888 May 9, N. Y. Sun, quotee, “A Bear Story”, in Evening Gazette, Pittston, Pa., page 4, column 4
2. (rare) One who kills a bear.
   • I made for the barns to catch Bruin napping or lolling in the old hay. I entertain a vendetta toward the ursine family. I had a duello, pistol against claw, with one of them in the mountains of Oregon, and have nothing to show to point the moral and adorn the tale. My antagonist of that...a. 1861, Theodore Winthrop, “Life in the Open Air. — Katahdin and the Penobscot.”, in Life in the Open Air, and Other Papers, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, […], published 1873, “Ripogenus”...
   • It was entirely proper and in order to slay a deer or two while in the deer woods, and they did bring in a choice specimen or two for camp use or for friends at home. But Fernaldus was touched with ursimania. He would become an ursicide. The notion of possessing a bearskin rug pleased his fancy...1906 March 10, Forest and Stream, page 385, column 3