Words & TermsWork, bush and rural life
bandicoot
To remove potatoes from the ground, often surreptitiously, while leaving the plant tops apparently undisturbed.
In a sentence
Someone had bandicooted the potato rows without disturbing the tops.
Where it came from
The verb likens stealthy potato digging to a bandicoot scratching for food. Australian evidence appears in the late nineteenth century, including records from 1896 and 1899.
- First recorded
- 1896
- Initial era
- 1850–1899
- Where used
- Especially historical Victorian potato districts