/wood"chuk'/ , n.
a stocky North American burrowing rodent, Marmota monax, that hibernates in the winter. Also called chuck, groundhog .
[ 1665-75, Amer.; presumably a reshaping by folk etym. of a word in a Southern New England Algonquian language; cf. Narragansett (E sp.) ockqutchaun woodchuck ]