[f. BEAR sb.1]
1. The skin of a bear used as a wrap or garment.
1823. Byron, Juan, X. xxvi. In this gay clime of bear-skins black and furry.
1835. Sir J. Ross, N.-W. Pass., xli. 547. Natives came … bringing … a bearskin and some clothing.
1855. Kingsley, Heroes, II. 205. Wrapt in a bearskin cloak.
b. fig. in reference to the torture of Christians by baiting them in bearskins.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, III. 123. The Pelagian Iesuites oppose the Dominicans in this point under the Bears skin of being Calvinists.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 29. If they had chosen to bring our primitive founders upon the stage in a pleasanter way than that of bear-skins and pitch-barrels.
2. The tall furry cap worn by the Guards in the British Army.
[1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxiv. Ensign Spooney … tried on a new bearskin cap, under which he looked savage beyond his years.]
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, II. 338. The towering bearskins which mark a battalion of the English Guards.
3. A shaggy kind of woollen cloth used for overcoats.
4. See BEAR sb.1 8. Bearskin jobber, early name of the ‘bear’ on the Stock Exchange.
