1613 A. Whitaker Good Newes from Virginia 41 The female possown which will let forth her young out of her bellie.

1670 D. Denton Brief Descr. N.-Y. 7 They eat likewise Polecats, Skunks, Racoon, Possum.

1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 22 A Cloath artificially woven of Possums Hair.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Marsupiale, in natural history, a name given by Tyson to the creature commonly called, the possum, or opossum.

1809 A. Wilson Foresters in Port Folio Nov. 277 While owls and possums found concealment there.

1880 ‘M. Twain’ Tramp Abroad iii. 38 He cocked his head to one side, shut one eye and put the other one to the hole, like a 'possum looking down a jug.

1932 W. Faulkner Light in August i. 19 I reckon it ain't any human in this country is going to dispute them hens with you, lessen it's the possums and the snakes.

1988 G. Naylor Mama Day 78 Now all we got is a few coon, some possum.

1770 J. Cook Jrnl. 4 Aug. (1955) I. 367 Here are Wolves, Possums, an Animal like a ratt, and snakes.

1847 A. Harris Settlers & Convicts xii. 237 Before white man come..plenty 'possum, plenty everything.

1878 Punch 10 Aug. 59/2 Australian beef, and kangaroos—and 'possums, wombats, and ornithorhyncusses.

1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country i. 6 'Possums when excited by the bark of dogs at the foot of trees where they have refuge will run up and down every branch in turn.

1970 Southerly 30 303 One night a possum broke into the kitchen, through a window left just slightly ajar.

2002 Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 9 Mar. 3/3 In areas where we kill possums we are still losing bird species to things like stoats.

1894 A. B. Bell Austral. Camp Fire Tales 104 Bob Fogarty, as I'm a living sinner, delighted to meet you, old possum.

1921 W. H. Phipps Bush Yarns 55 He was a pretty useless possum was Tom, and a bit starchy when he had his fancy clothes on.

1965 K. Smith OGF 250 The cheeky possum! Walking into our house like that without even an invite!

1982 R. Hall Just Relations 88 Goodness what an ugly little possum you've turned into.

1903 Sporting News (Launceston, Tasmania) 17 Jan. 1/2 Although the field was a painfully weak one, the game of ‘possum’ appeared in more than one instance to have been well rehearsed.

1943 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 61 Possum, a ‘ring-in’.

1955 Bulletin (Sydney) 27 July 12/3 Whence do we get the colloquialisms ‘playing possum’ and ‘a possum’ (meaning a racetrack ring-in)?

1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xvi. 273 His 'possum beard and his slouch hat, out of which his mild blue eyes looked with incontestable simplicity.

1848 H. W. Haygarth Recoll. Bush Life 21 He rolls himself for the night in the blanket or ‘possum cloak’, which by day is strapped on before him.

1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms I. xix. 255 One tallish gin, darker than the others, and with her hair tucked under an old bonnet, wrapped her 'possum cloak closely round her shoulders.

1994 E. Thompson Fair Enough iv. 98 They put him in their best hut and covered him with two very large possum cloaks for warmth at night.

1835 F. W. Thomas Clinton Bradshaw xiv. 217 What time do you commence your possum hunt, to-night?

1902 Pub. Amer. Econ. Assoc. 3rd Ser. 3 145 Rarely were they too tired for a night frolic, with fiddling and dancing, or a coon and 'possum hunt.

2000 Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) (Nexis) 15 July 4 The council had a possum hunt and 18 were found in one tree.

1872 in Rep. U.S. Congr. Joint Sel. Comm. Condition of Affairs Late Insurrectionary States 1905 It is a common thing in our country for the negroes to 'possum-hunt and coon-hunt, and to be roving about all through the night.

1900 Congress. Rec. 11 Jan. 784/1 I used to 'possum hunt.

2004 Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) (Nexis) 30 Aug. e1 He just walked around, put in a word every now and then, and looked out the window like he was possum hunting or something.

1848 W. T. Thompson Major Jones's Sketches Trav. xxii. 190 Old Saul always was the most bominable possum-hunter and fish-trapper I ever seed in my life; but he's too old to quarrel with him now, and besides, he's a monstrous good old feller.

1869 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 645 A true 'possum hunter never aims except in the head.

1999 Nelson (N.Z.) Mail (Nexis) 23 Aug. 10 A possum hunter was found cold but safe after a successful search and rescue mission near Nydia Bay.

1840 Southern Literary Messenger 6 784/1 He is fond of possum, rabbit, and coon-hunting.

1899 Austral. Tit-bits (Sydney) 25 Feb. 42/2 There was no time to spare for 'possum hunting today.

1984 A. Smith Dan's Car in G. Ursell More Sask. Gold i. i. 2 All the moonshining, possum hunting, cock fighting and other delightful goings-on of the sort taking place down there.

1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. xxix. 391 The Esquimaux..say that the dogs soon learn this ‘possum-playing’ habit.

2003 Sports Illustr. (Nexis) 10 Mar. 60 111–42, a score so emphatic that it made McCarthy's pregame possum playing sound sincere.

1840 S. Austral. Rec. (London) 26 Dec. 410 The natives are a harmless race of people..a blanket, or possem rug, completes their dress.

1873 J. H. H. St. John Pakeha Rambles through Maori Lands vii. 128 With a blanket, or better still, a 'possum rug,..the traveller may jog along very comfortably.

2004 Southland (N.Z.) Times (Nexis) 3 Sept. 17 An eclectic mix of handcrafted items..included..pottery from Canterbury and Otago, possum-merino knitwear and possum rugs from Southland.

1946 F. D. Davison Dusty 164 He was a possum scalper, now.

1853 S. Rinder in Househ. Words 30 Apr. 211/1 No bushman considers that he is fully equipped for travelling if he has not a good ‘possum-skin-rug’ strapped to his saddle.

1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxix. 249 They did..sometimes sew themselves sort of elementary clothes out of possum skins threaded together with kangaroo tendons.

1987 L. Murray Coll. Poems (1991) 228 The crumples of the possum-skin rug.

1966 ‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 8 Before the dawn I went round possum snares.

1985 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 7 Aug. 30 At age 8 he helped setting possum snares and pegged the skins.

1908 Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Jan. 14/2 The 'possum-snarer is no longer known in the land; his place has been taken by the rabbit-snapper.

1922 Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Aug. 20/3 How's this for a 'possum-snarer's cheque?

1997 Sunday Tasmanian (Nexis) 6 July The possum snarers had purpose-built drying huts and kept fires stoked all the time to dry out the skins before carrying them out.

1961 B. Crump Hang on a Minute Mate 145 Well, a man could sell deerskins and possum tokens.

1997 Daily News (New Plymouth, N.Z.) (Nexis) 24 Apr. 16 The merits of a bounty on possum tokens have been hotly disputed by DOC, regional councils and the Animal Health Board.

1904 Agitator (Wellsboro, Pa.) 13 July 4/5 The engine is anything but modern, and the coaches have the old ‘possum belly’ in which baggage was carried.

1939 P. A. Rollins Gone Haywire 66 There was a sufficient supply of firewood in the ‘cooney’ or ‘possum belly’ (a baggy, dried cowhide fastened horizontally beneath the wagon box and used for carrying a reserve of fuel).

1995 Animals' Voice Spring 8/2 Horses are usually transported in possum-belly trailers. Ideally, the smaller horses are loaded on top while the larger animals are put on the lower level.

1961 New Scientist 8 June 561/1 The basis of the device, which is known as ‘Possum’, is that a small steady suck or blow can operate a sensitive switch which, in turn, operates a rotary switch connected to a grid. The grid sets out letters, numbers and punctuation symbols.

1972 Daily Tel. 31 Oct. 18 Electronic devices with which severely disabled people can operate typewriters and other machines by mouth, finger or toe, possums..enable the handicapped to lead useful lives.

1976 Responaut Autumn 13/2 My window on the world, apart from my eyes, is 15 inches by 7, the size of the tilting mirror attached to my respirator. Reflected through this I can see my two Possum indicators revealing the 21 electrical devices I am able to control.

1993 Press Assoc. (Nexis) 1 June The Possum, a device to help the disabled control their environment, was given to Deng by visiting Minister of State for Disabled People Nicholas Moore.

1997 Brit. Med. Jrnl. (Nexis) 16 Aug. 409 The first environmental control system, known as Possum (Patient Operated Selector Mechanism), was produced in the 1950s for survivors of the poliomyelitis epidemic.

1832 T. Flint Hist. & Geogr. Mississippi Valley (ed. 2) I. 67 In the common parlance of the country, any one, who counterfeits sickness..is said to be ‘possuming’ [1828 oppossuming].

1912 W. H. Thomas in J. F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) ii. 4 Now when that nigger comes to, if she's been possumin', she sho' will be hungry.

1942 G. S. Perry Texas 55 It may turn dark green and sick-looking, but it'll just be possuming, because all the cotton that couldn't stand dry weather died a long time ago and left no seed.

1972 J. S. Hall Sayings from Old Smoky 110 Ellis Ogle, Low Gap, Gatlingburg, said that when he was a young boy and was put to bed early, he could sometimes hear older folks telling witch tales: ‘I lay there a-possumn' on 'em.’

2000 Atlanta Jrnl. & Constitut. (Nexis) 14 Apr. 3 h Joe Watson didn't come to life again until 10 o'clock the next morning. If the other three had been smart, they'd have possumed until it was all over, too.

1850 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. May 432 Admirable—just like a fox—he fairly possumed it; and when he came too [sic], he broke for his office like a black snake before a prairie fire.

1853 J. G. Baldwin Flush Times Alabama & Mississippi 150 All this time I was possuming sleep..as innocent as a lamb.

1940 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 6 Jan. 32 He closed his eyes and possumed sleep.