grinny
nounEtymology The phrase "grinny chipmunk" is first attested in 1898 (see quotation below). Perhaps from Etymology 1 above.
1
Pennsylvania, Western An eastern chipmunk, Tamias striatus.
- Reason thus, and if your heart beats till it hurts your ribs as a gray squirrel whisks across the dry leaves or a ‘grinny chipmunk’ waves you a derisive signal with his little flag from a log before your very nose, call yourself ‘fool,’ ‘idiot,’ anything that comes handy.[1898 November, B. W. Mitchell, “A Thanksgiving Deer Hunt in West Virginia”, in Outing, page 143: