deer

deer  (dîr)

n. pl. deer

Any of various hoofed ruminant mammals of the family Cervidae, characteristically having deciduous antlers borne chiefly by the males. The deer family also includes the elk, moose, caribou, and reindeer.

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[Middle English der, beast, from Old English dor.]

Word History: In various Middle English texts one finds a fish, an ant, or a fox called a der, the Middle English ancestor of our word deer. In its Old English form dor, our word referred to any animal, including members of the deer family, and continued to do so in Middle English, although it also acquired the specific sense "a deer." By the end of the Middle English period, around 1500, the general sense had all but disappeared. Deer is a commonly cited example of a semantic process called specialization, by which the range of a word's meaning is narrowed or restricted. When Shakespeare uses the expression "mice and rats, and such small deer" for Edgar's diet in King Lear, probably written in 1605, we are not sure whether deer has the general or the specific sense. It is interesting to note that the German word Tier, the cognate of English deer, still has the general sense of "animal."

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deer

Noun

pl deer or deers a large hoofed mammal [Old English dēor beast]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

deer - distinguished from Bovidae by the male's having solid deciduous antlers cervid antler - deciduous horn of a member of the deer family scut - a short erect tail flag - a conspicuously marked or shaped tail ruminant - any of various cud-chewing hoofed mammals having a stomach divided into four (occasionally three) compartments Cervidae, family Cervidae - deer: reindeer; moose or elks; muntjacs; roe deer pricket - male deer in his second year fawn - a young deer Cervus elaphus, red deer, wapiti, American elk, elk - common deer of temperate Europe and Asia Cervus unicolor, sambar, sambur - a deer of southern Asia with antlers that have three tines American elk, Cervus elaphus canadensis, wapiti, elk - large North American deer with large much-branched antlers in the male Cervus nipon, Cervus sika, Japanese deer, sika - small deer of Japan with slightly forked antlers Odocoileus Virginianus, Virginia deer, white tail, white-tailed deer, whitetail, whitetail deer - common North American deer; tail has a white underside burro deer, mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus - long-eared deer of western North America with two-pronged antlers Alces alces, elk, European elk, moose - large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male; called `elk' in Europe and `moose' in North America Dama dama, fallow deer - small Eurasian deer Capreolus capreolus, roe deer - small graceful deer of Eurasian woodlands having small forked antlers caribou, Greenland caribou, Rangifer tarandus, reindeer - Arctic deer with large antlers in both sexes; called `reindeer' in Eurasia and `caribou' in North America brocket - small South American deer with unbranched antlers barking deer, muntjac - small Asian deer with small antlers and a cry like a bark Moschus moschiferus, musk deer - small heavy-limbed upland deer of central Asia; male secretes valued musk elaphure, Elaphurus davidianus, pere david's deer - large Chinese deer surviving only in domesticated herds withers - the highest part of the back at the base of the neck of various animals especially draft animals

Translations

deer [dɪəʳ] n, pl inv → ciervo

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deer [dɪəʳ] n pl inv;

the deer → les cervidés mpl;

(Zool);

(red) deer → cerf m;

(fallow) deer → daim m;

(roe) deer → chevreuil m

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deer [dɪəʳ] n inv → Reh nt;

(male) → Hirsch m;

(red) deer → Rotwild nt;

(roe) deer → Reh nt;

(fallow) deer → Damwild nt

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deer [dɪəʳ] n (pl inv): the deer → i cervidi (ZOOL);

(red) deer → cervo;

(fallow) deer → daino;

(roe) deer → capriolo

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deer

n deer [diə]

a kind of large, grass-eating animal, the male of which sometimes has antlers a herd of deer. hert, takbok أيِّل، غَزال елен vysoká zvěř hjort; rådyr der Hirsch ελάφι ciervo, venado hirv آهو؛ گوزن hirvi, peura cervidé צְבִי ‍िहरन, मृग jelen, srna őz, szarvas rusa hjartardÿr cervo 鹿 사슴 elnias briedis rusa hert hjortedyr sarna, jeleń veado căprioară олень vysoká zver jelen jelen hjort, rådjur กวาง geyik 鹿 олень ہرن ، چکارا ، بارہ سنگا hươu, nai 鹿