chipmunk

Meanings

Noun

• A squirrel-like rodent of the genus Tamias, native mainly to North America.

Verb

• To speed up an audio recording, especially a song, to make the voices high-pitched.
• In competitive eating, to stuff food in one's mouth during the final moments of a contest.

Related

Similar words

• ground squirrel, striped squirrel

Origin

• 1832; alteration (influenced by chipping squirrel) of earlier chitmunk, from older Ojibwe ačitamo˙nˀ (modern ajidamoo), literally ‘those who descend headlong’, from ačit- (compare modern ajijibizo, ajidagoojin). The verb developed due to the high-pitched voices of the American puppet and cartoon chipmunks in the group Alvin and the Chipmunks, who later starred in a popular children's TV show in the 1980s.