English

A common raccoon (Procyon lotor)

A raccoon raiding a bird feeder at night

Alternative forms

• racoon [from 17th c.]
• rarowcun [17th c.]
• r'coon (colloquial contraction)

Noun

raccoon ‎(plural raccoons)

1. A nocturnal omnivore native to North America, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking around the eyes and a striped tail; Procyon lotor.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 64:

     Before a fire upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by.

   • 2010, Charlie Brooker, "Screen Burn", The Guardian, 3 Apr 2010:

     Thus we're presented with […] a man who has the head of his **** bitten off by a raccoon, then bleeds to death in a forest.

2. Any mammal of the genus Procyon.
3. Any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae, a procyonine.
4. Any mammal of the family Procyonidae, a procyonid.

Synonyms

• (Procyon lotor): coon (colloquial), common raccoon, North American raccoon, northern raccoon

Derived terms

• coon
• coon dog
• coonhound
• Cozumel raccoon (Procyon pygmaeus)
• crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus)
• in a raccoon's age / in a coon's age
• pygmy raccoon (Procyon pygmaeus)
• raccoon butterfly (Chaetodon fasciatus)
• raccoon butterflyfish, (Chaetodon lunula)
• raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)
• raccoon eyes

Translations

northern raccoon range