See Also: Deer(medicine)
roe deer(dictionary)
deer(dictionary)
roe deer(encyclopedia)
red deer(encyclopedia)
deer(encyclopedia)
deer(dictionary)
deer mouse(encyclopedia)
deer-fly fever(medicine)
deer (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)

deer (iou)



deer noun. Pl. same, (rare) -s.
[Old English deor = Old Frisian diar, Old Saxon dior (Dutch dier), Old High German tior (German Tier), Old Norse dr, Gothic (dat. pl.) diuzam, from Germanic from Indo-European, orig. 'breathing creature'.]
An animal, a beast, esp. a quadruped. Long obsolete exc. in small deer (arch.), small creatures collectively, fig. insignificant things. OE.
Any ruminant quadruped of the family Cervidae, distinguished in the male by the presence of deciduous branching horns or antlers and in the young by the presence of spots, or of the related families Tragulidae and Moschidae (both lacking horns). OE.
fallow deer, moose-deer, mouse deer, musk deer, red deer, reindeer, roe-deer, rusa deer, sika deer, Virginian deer, etc.
Comb.: deer-ball an underground fruiting body of a fungus of the genus Elaphomyces; deerberry (the fruit of) any of various N. American shrubs, esp. Vaccinium caesium or V. stamineum; deer-brush a shrub, Ceanothus integerrimus, of the south-western US; deer-coloured adjective (now rare) tawny red; deer-culler NZ a professional shooter of deer; deer-fly any of various flies which infest deer, esp. one of the tabanid genus Chrysops; deer-forest: see FOREST noun 2b; deer-grass, (north.) deer-hair a small moorland club-rush, Trichophorum cespitosum; deer-horn (a) (the material of) a deer's antler; (b) US a large mussel, Tritigonia verrucosa, the shell of which is used to make buttons etc.; deer-hound a dog used for hunting deer, a staghound; esp. a large rough-haired greyhound; deer-lick a spring or damp spot impregnated with salt etc., where deer come to lick; deer-mouse any mouse of the large N. and Central American genus Peromyscus; esp. P. maniculatus, which is common throughout N. America; deer-park a park in which deer are kept; deer's hair north. = deer-grass above; deerskin adjective & noun (made from) the skin of a deer; deerstalker (a) a hunter who stalks deer; (b) a cloth cap peaked in front and behind, with earflaps which are usually tied up on the top; deer-stealer arch. a poacher who kills and steals deer; deer-track the track of a deer; a path made by deer.
deerlet noun a small deer; spec. a chevrotain: L19.
deerlike adjective resembling (that of) a deer M19.