pemmican Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun lean dried meat pounded fine and mixed with melted fat; used especially by North American Indians
    pemican.

WordNet


Pem"mi*can noun
Etymology
Written also pemican.
Definitions
  1. Among the North American Indians, meat cut in thin slices, divested of fat, and dried in the sun.
    Then on pemican they feasted. Longfellow.
  2. Meat, without the fat, cut in thin slices, dried in the sun, pounded, then mixed with melted fat and sometimes dried fruit, and compressed into cakes or in bags. It contains much nutriment in small compass, and is of great use in long voyages of exploration.

Webster 1913