Ground squirrel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun small striped semiterrestrial eastern American squirrel with cheek pouches
    Tamias striatus; striped squirrel; eastern chipmunk; hackee.
  2. noun any of various terrestrial burrowing rodents of Old and New Worlds; often destroy crops
    spermophile; gopher.

WordNet

Definitions
  1. . (Zoöl.) (a) One of numerous species of burrowing rodents of the genera Tamias and Spermophilus, having cheek pouches. The former genus includes the Eastern striped squirrel or chipmunk and some allied Western species; the latter includes the prairie squirrel or striped gopher, the gray gopher, and many allied Western species. See Chipmunk, and Gopher. (b) Any species of the African genus Xerus, allied to Tamias.

Webster 1913