Meanings
plural wishtonwishes
- USobsoleteexcept perhaps in dialectsThe prairie dog.
[…] who, it turned out, devoted all his spending money to them, asked me if I had ever seen a "wishtonwish."
1937, James Thurber, Let Your Mind Alone, page 1891 more example
On the twenty fourth of October, while on a short excursion from this place, Lt. Pike and Dr. Robertson, (a gentleman who accompanied the expedition,) killed some prairie squirrels, or wishtonwishes, and nine rattle snakes, […]
1812 April, “Pike's Expedition”, in The General Repository and Review, volume 1, page 398
Origin
From a Native American word which was an onomatopoeic representation of the animals' cry.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
wishtonwish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wishtonwish
“wishtonwish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wishtonwish. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wishtonwish,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wishtonwish.
Source: wishtonwish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.