mound builder

¹

noun

1. megapode.

Mound Builder

²

noun

1. a member of one of the various American Indian tribes who, in prehistoric and early historic times, erected the burial mounds and other earthworks of the Mississippi drainage basin and southeastern U.S.

mound-builder

¹

noun

1. another name for megapode

Mound Builder

²

noun

1. a member of a group of prehistoric inhabitants of the Mississippi region who built altar-mounds, tumuli, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of mound builder¹

First recorded in 1835–45

Origin of mound builder²

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

It's all right, after all, I suppose; but if I were a little mound-builder's baby, I'd rather have a mamma that would stay around and go places with me, wouldn't you?

From Project Gutenberg

Every skeleton of a Mound-Builder is found in a condition of extreme decay.

From Project Gutenberg

With the mound-builder tobacco was the greatest of luxuries; his solace in his hours of relaxations, and the choicest offering he could dedicate to the Great Spirit.

From Project Gutenberg

The Brush Turkey and the Mound-Builder left their heaped-up nests and joined the other thirsty creatures, and only by the crackling of the dry scrub, or the falling of a few leaves, could one tell that so many live creatures were together in that wild place.

From Project Gutenberg

Books are not, however, loaned, as they are from the Cossitt Library, an institution to which I found myself returning more than once; now for a book, now to look at the interesting collection of mound-builder relics contained in an upper room, now merely because it is a place of such reposeful hospitality that I liked to make excuses to go back.

From Project Gutenberg