gopher
Other forms: gophers
A gopher is a small brown animal that digs holes and tunnels underground. It's also a colloquial name for a person who runs around doing tasks and errands for someone else.
Like groundhogs, gophers are commonly found across North America, digging holes in backyards, gardens, and golf courses. Gophers are smaller than their burrowing rodent cousins, with cheek pouches that give them the commonly used name "pocket gopher." If you get a job as a gopher, you won't be tunneling underground, but running errands. This meaning comes from gopher's pronunciation, "go-fer" or "go-for."
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any of various terrestrial burrowing rodents of Old and New Worlds; often destroy cropssynonyms: ground squirrel, spermophiletypes:Citellus leucurus, antelope chipmunk, antelope squirrel, whitetail antelope squirrelsmall ground squirrel of western United StatesCitellus lateralis, mantled ground squirrelcommon black-striped reddish-brown ground squirrel of western North America; resembles a large chipmunkCitellus richardsoni, Richardson ground squirrel, flickertailof sagebrush and grassland areas of western United States and CanadaCitellus variegatus, rock squirrellarge grey ground squirrel of rocky areas of the southwestern United StatesArctic ground squirrel, Citellus parryi, parka squirrellarge ground squirrel of the North American far northtype of:squirrela kind of arboreal rodent having a long bushy tail
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burrowing rodent of the family Geomyidae having large external cheek pouches; of Central America and southwestern North Americasynonyms: pocket gopher, pouched rattypes:Thomomys talpoides, northern pocket gophergreyish to brown gopher of western and central United Statestype of:pocket ratany of various rodents with cheek pouches
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burrowing edible land tortoise of southeastern North Americasynonyms: Gopherus polypemus, gopher tortoise, gopher turtletype of:tortoiseusually herbivorous land turtles having clawed elephant-like limbs; worldwide in arid area except Australia and Antarctica
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a person who energetically completes tasks for another person (especially an assistant or salesperson)
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Vocabulary lists containing gopher
Stories about a saber-toothed kitten, hardworking gophers, and tarantulas on a plane all contributed words to this list of vocabulary from the week's news.