Chou'an, n.

(shōo'an), n. [So called from the first chieftain, a smith, named Chouan; or, according to some, from Fr. chouan, chouant, contracted from chat-huant, a screech-owl, because at first the band consisted of smugglers and outlaws, or because, like this animal, they chiefly acted by night.] One of a band of royalist insurgents on the River Loire, during the French revolution. They were mostly brigands. Brande.