deer

/dɪər/

/dɪə/

Other forms: deers

A deer is a four-legged, hoofed animal with antlers. Disney’s Bambi is a famous deer. There are deer all over the world, but American deer are light brown, and are often found nibbling on plants at dusk.

The main thing that distinguishes deer from other horned animals, like antelope, is that deer shed their antlers once a year and grow new ones. A female deer, called a "doe," has smaller antlers than the male, or "buck." The Old English root of deer, deor, means "beast" or "animal," and was originally used generally to refer to all four-legged wild animals.

Definitions of deer

1. noun

   distinguished from Bovidae by the male's having solid deciduous antlers
   synonyms: cervid

   types:

   pricket

   male deer in his second year

   fawn

   a young deer

   American elk, Cervus elaphus, elk, red deer, wapiti

   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, elk, wapiti

   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

   Odocoileus hemionus, burro deer, mule deer

   long-eared deer of western North America with two-pronged antlers

   Alces alces, European elk, 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

   Greenland caribou, Rangifer tarandus, caribou, 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

   Elaphurus davidianus, elaphure, pere david's deer

   large Chinese deer surviving only in domesticated herds

   hart, stag

   a male deer, especially an adult male red deer

   hind

   a female deer, especially an adult female red deer

   brocket

   male red deer in its second year

   Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, black-tailed deer, blacktail, blacktail deer

   mule deer of western Rocky Mountains

   roebuck

   male roe deer

   Rangifer caribou, woodland caribou

   any of several large caribou living in coniferous forests of southern Canada; in some classifications included in the species Rangifer tarandus

   Rangifer arcticus, barren ground caribou

   of tundra of northern Canada; in some classifications included in the species Rangifer tarandus

   type of:

   ruminant

   any of various cud-chewing hoofed mammals having a stomach divided into four (occasionally three) compartments