Definition of "wigwam"

wigwam

/ˈwɪɡwɑːm/

noun
plural wigwams
1. A dwelling having an arched framework overlaid with bark, hides, or mats, used by Native Americans in the northeastern United States.
2. (possibly dated) Any more or less similar dwelling used by indigenous people in other parts of the world.
  Quotations
  Their houſes or wigwams, which they call carbets, are built as I have already deſcribed thoſe of the negroes; but inſtead of being covered with the leaves of the manicole-tree, they are covered with the leaves of rattans or jointed canes, here called tas, which grow in cluſters in all marſhy places: [...]
  1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter XV, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume I, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], page 388
  The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, a haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches stuck in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side with a few tufts of grass and rushes.
  1845 edition, Charles Darwin, Journal and Remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle)
verb
third-person singular simple present wigwams, present participle wigwamming, simple past and past participle wigwammed
1. (transitive) To dry (flax or straw) by standing it outside in the shape of a wigwam.