[deer] Pronunciation Key ) deers. | 1. | any of several ruminants of the family Cervidae, most of the males of which have solid, deciduous antlers. |
| 2. | any of the smaller species of this family, as distinguished from the moose, elk, etc. |
] Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
| deer
(dîr) Pronunciation Key
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. [Middle English der, beast, from Old English dēor.] 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 dēor, 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." |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
deer
| deer | |
noun | |
| distinguished from Bovidae by the male's having solid deciduous antlers |
Deer Trail, CO (town, FIPS 19630) Location: 39.61688 N, 104.04179 W
Population (1990): 476 (242 housing units)
Area: 2.4 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 80105
Deer Lodge, TN Zip code(s): 37726
Deer Park, AL Zip code(s): 36529
Deer Park, MD (town, FIPS 22275) Location: 39.42348 N, 79.32670 W
Population (1990): 419 (174 housing units)
Area: 2.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 21550
Deer Park, NY (CDP, FIPS 19972) Location: 40.76230 N, 73.32262 W
Population (1990): 28840 (9616 housing units)
Area: 16.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 11729
Deer Park, TX (city, FIPS 19624) Location: 29.69039 N, 95.11531 W
Population (1990): 27652 (9127 housing units)
Area: 26.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 77536
Deer Park, WA (city, FIPS 17320) Location: 47.96334 N, 117.43396 W
Population (1990): 2278 (949 housing units)
Area: 16.3 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 99006
Deer Park, WI (village, FIPS 19325) Location: 45.18861 N, 92.38660 W
Population (1990): 237 (98 housing units)
Area: 2.4 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 54007
Deer River, MN (city, FIPS 15310) Location: 47.33595 N, 93.79399 W
Population (1990): 838 (392 housing units)
Area: 1.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 56636
Deer Lodge, MT (city, FIPS 19825) Location: 46.39729 N, 112.73198 W
Population (1990): 3378 (1592 housing units)
Area: 3.7 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 59722
Deer Grove, IL (village, FIPS 19031) Location: 41.61011 N, 89.68462 W
Population (1990): 44 (19 housing units)
Area: 1.2 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 61243
Deer Creek, IL (village, FIPS 18940) Location: 40.62934 N, 89.33313 W
Population (1990): 630 (233 housing units)
Area: 0.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 61733
Deer Isle, ME Zip code(s): 04627
Deer Creek, MN (city, FIPS 15184) Location: 46.39127 N, 95.32202 W
Population (1990): 303 (155 housing units)
Area: 10.4 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 56527
Deer Creek, OK (town, FIPS 19650) Location: 36.80630 N, 97.51877 W
Population (1990): 124 (79 housing units)
Area: 0.4 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 74636
Deer Island, OR Zip code(s): 97054
Deer Park, OH (city, FIPS 21266) Location: 39.20340 N, 84.39697 W
Population (1990): 6181 (2731 housing units)
Area: 2.2 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Deer Park, CA (CDP, FIPS 18324) Location: 38.53277 N, 122.46862 W
Population (1990): 1825 (722 housing units)
Area: 14.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Deer Park, IL (village, FIPS 19083) Location: 42.16813 N, 88.08819 W
Population (1990): 2887 (917 housing units)
Area: 9.4 sq km (land), 0.2 sq km (water)
Deer Lake, PA (borough, FIPS 18576) Location: 40.62064 N, 76.05663 W
Population (1990): 550 (211 housing units)
Area: 1.1 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
Little Deer Isle, ME Zip code(s): 04650
Deer Lodge County, MT (county, FIPS 23) Location: 46.06583 N, 113.08359 W
Population (1990): 10278 (4830 housing units)
Area: 1908.7 sq km (land), 11.2 sq km (water)
Deer, AR Zip code(s): 72628
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, MT (county, FIPS 1675) Location: 46.06583 N, 113.08359 W
Population (1990): 10278 (4830 housing units)
Area: 1908.7 sq km (land), 11.2 sq km (water)
Lame Deer, MT (CDP, FIPS 42250) Location: 45.61761 N, 106.60975 W
Population (1990): 1918 (610 housing units)
Area: 143.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 59043
White Deer, TX (town, FIPS 78316) Location: 35.43245 N, 101.17484 W
Population (1990): 1125 (502 housing units)
Area: 4.5 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 79097
Brown Deer, WI (village, FIPS 10375) Location: 43.17500 N, 87.97477 W
Population (1990): 12236 (5070 housing units)
Area: 11.4 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Deer
Deer\ (d[=e]r), n. sing. & pl. [OE. der, deor, animal, wild animal, AS. de['o]r; akin to D. dier, OFries. diar, G. thier, tier, Icel. d[=y]r, Dan. dyr, Sw. djur, Goth. dius; of unknown origin. [root]71.]1. Any animal; especially, a wild animal. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Mice and rats, and such small deer. --Shak. The camel, that great deer. --Lindisfarne MS. 2. (Zo["o]l.) A ruminant of the genus Cervus, of many species, and of related genera of the family Cervid[ae]. The males, and in some species the females, have solid antlers, often much branched, which are shed annually. Their flesh, for which they are hunted, is called venison. Note: The deer hunted in England is Cervus elaphus, called also stag or red deer; the fallow deer is C. dama; the common American deer is C. Virginianus; the blacktailed deer of Western North America is C. Columbianus; and the mule deer of the same region is C. macrotis. See Axis, Fallow deer, Mule deer, Reindeer. Note: Deer is much used adjectively, or as the first part of a compound; as, deerkiller, deerslayer, deerslaying, deer hunting, deer stealing, deerlike, etc. Deer mouse (Zo["o]l.), the white-footed mouse (Hesperomys leucopus) of America. Small deer, petty game, not worth pursuing; -- used metaphorically. (See citation from Shakespeare under the first definition, above.) "Minor critics . . . can find leisure for the chase of such small deer." --G. P. Marsh.
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