dormouse

plural dormice · alternative misspelling doormouse

1. Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae.

   Restoration such as this must work around wildlife habitats, and NR came to discover that almost the entire line was a haven for dormice.

   2021 November 17, Andrew Mourant, “Okehampton: a new dawn for Dartmoor”, in RAIL, number 944, page 41

   1 more example

   For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants' hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war in America, which was hailed as the awakening of the spirit of liberty and justice in the New World, ought to produce a revolution in France.

   1837, George Sand, translated by Stanley Young, Mauprat, Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237

   1. Glis glis (edible dormouse).
   2. UKMuscardinus avellanarius (hazel dormouse).
2. figurativelyA person who sleeps a great deal, or who falls asleep readily (by analogy with the sound hibernation of the dormouse).

   If only he could see their kits, curled like sleepy dormice in the nursery.^([Note: The word "kit" is not an error; this quotation shows the thoughts of a cat in a society of cats.])

   2009, Erin Hunter [pseudonym; Erin Hunter Team], Warriors Super Edition: Bluestar's Prophecy, page 473