Dictionary

doodlebugger en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From doodlebug (“divining rod”) + -er.

Meanings

1. (slang) A dowser searching for subterranean natural resources such as water or oil.
   • This was a "doodlebugger," a man who searches for oil with divining rods of wondrous shapes and descriptions. And not just any doodlebugger, but one of the hottest noses in the amateur oil-sniffing game – Walter J. Nelson. 1963, December 7, William Trombley, “The dowser who finds oil wells”, The Saturday Evening Post, issue 43, page 88
2. (broadly, slang) A geophysicist working in the field to explore oil or other natural resources.

Forms