soddie

plural soddies · alternative soddy

1. CanadaUSinformalA house constructed from blocks of sod, once common in the prairies of the United States and Canada.

   I learned how to make a soddie into a home.

   1995, Julie Garwood, Prince Charming, page 247

   3 more examples

   The soddie could be a freestanding structure made of slabs of sod cut by a plow, or it could be a dugout partially bored into the side of a hill or into the ground.

   1988, Glenda Riley, The Female Frontier, page 87

   “Living in a soddy!” exclaimed Marie. “I didn't know there was anyone alive today who lived in a soddy. In our part of Nebraska, soddies went out of existence around the beginning of the 1900s.” “Oh, we had soddies for a long time after that,” said Robert. “This area was too poor to afford lumber for housing. Quite a few of us lived in soddies when we were kids.”

   2004, Marie Kramer, Grandchildren of the Pioneers, page 56

   It is better now that we do not live in the soddie, but to Mor it does not seem better.

   2010, Brenda K. Marshall, Dakota, Or What's a Heaven For, unnumbered page