beavers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of beaver.

   A family of beavers had flooded the lower meadow by fall.

   Trappers once hunted beavers across the region for their dense fur.

   Note

   A plural that usually counts animals, but not only animals. The felted hat once fashionable in Europe was also called a beaver, so beavers can mean several of those hats. The fur, the heavy overcoat cloth and the brown color are normally uncountable, so you speak of a collar of beaver rather than of beavers. In those senses the plural is rare.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of beaver.

   The intern beavers away at the filing while the others take their break.

   Whenever a deadline looms, she beavers at the report until midnight.

   Note

   Most often this form reports steady, diligent effort. Someone beavers away at a task, and the particle away stresses that the work keeps going. The same spelling also serves narrower verbs. In tree-felling slang it means cutting a ring around the trunk. In games with a doubling cube it means redoubling at once to keep the cube on one's own side.

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