noun - of course it's the cute furry rodent, but it's also a person who likes to hoard food or emergency supplies like
toilet paper, bottled water, and
hand sanitizer.
verb - to hamster is to hoard, or store away, extra stuff, usually more than you need or suddenly a bunch all at once.
Unbelievably, hamster means to hoard in German and Dutch and supposedly
the animal got it's name from that.
The weatherman announced a big snowstorm was coming and everyone ran to the
grocery store to hamster supplies.
That guy
hamstered 25 cases of
hand sanitizer when the covid pandemic first started.
Look at how much food she has in this closet -she's such a hamster!