deern.
/dɪə/, U.S. /dɪ(ə)r/ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > [noun]
neteneOE
wightc888
deerc950
beastc1225
jument1382
creaturea1387
animala1398
bestialc1400
bullifanta1528
bovya1549
animant1599
man or beast1600
breather1609
fellow creature1726
fig-fauns1750
critter1815
fellow1816
demon1821
skelm1827
c950 Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xviii. 25 Se camal þæt micla dear.
a1000 Boeth. Metr. xxvii. 24 Swa swa fugl oððe dior.
c1000 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 118/31 Fera, wild deor. Bellua, reðe deor..Unicornis, anhyrne deor.
1154 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 1135 Pais he makede men & dær.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 1312 Lamb iss soffte. & stille deor.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 1177 Shep iss..stille der.
a1250 Owl & Nightingale 1321 Al swo deth mani dor and man.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 4025 Allso leun is migtful der.
1481 W. Caxton tr. Hist. Reynard Fox (1970) 18 The rybaud and the felle diere here I se hym comen.
2. † c. deer of ten n. a stag of ten, i.e. one having ten points or tines on his horns; an adult stag of five years at least, and therefore ‘warrantable’ or fit to be hunted. Obsolete.
a. The general name of a family ( Cervidæ) of ruminant quadrupeds, distinguished by the possession of deciduous branching horns or antlers, and by the presence of spots on the young: the various genera and species being distinguished as reindeer, moose-deer, red deer, fallow deer; the musk deer n. belong to a different family, Moschidæ.A specific application of the word, which occurs in Old English only contextually, but became distinct in the Middle English period, and by its close remained as the usual sense.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > family Cervidae (deer) > [noun]
deera1131
venison1338
wild fee?a1500
lightfoot?1640
cervine1832
cervid1889
nubbin1978
c893 tr. Orosius Hist. i. i. (Sw.) 18 He [Ohthere] hæfde þa gyt ða he þone cyningc sohte, tamra deora unbebohtra syx hund. Þa deor hi hatað hranas.]
a1131 [see deer-fold n. at Compounds 1a]. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 1294 To huntien after deoren [c1300 Otho after deores].
1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (Rolls) 9047 He let [make] þe parc of Wodestoke, & der þer inne do.
c1325 Song on Passion 59 ( Old Eng. Misc. ) He was todrawe so dur islawe in chace.
c1420 Anturs of Arth. (Camden) iv Thay felle to the female dure, feyful thyk fold.
1464 in Manners & Househ. Expenses Eng. (1841) 195 A payr breganderys cueryd wyth whyte deris leder.
1470–85 T. Malory Morte d'Arthur x. lxi He chaced at the reed dere.
1487 (a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (St. John's Cambr.) vii. 497 [He] went..to purchase thame venysoun, For than the deir [1489 Adv. der] war in sesoun.
a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 66 A dere lovyth a lene barren..ground.
1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. D6v A goodly Parke,..wherein there is Deere.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) iii. i. 210 Like a Deere, stroken by many Princes. View more context for this quotation
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth (1776) III. 80 An hog, an ox, a goat, or a deer.
1855 H. W. Longfellow Hiawatha iii. 44 Where the red deer herd together.
b. occasional plural deers.
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c1275 [see sense 2a].
1677 N. Cox Gentleman's Recreation (ed. 2) i. 58 The reasons why Harts and Deers do lose their Horns yearly.
1769 J. Home Fatal Discov. iii Stretch'd on the skins of deers.
c1817 J. Hogg Tales & Sketches II. 89 The place of rendezvous, to which the deers were to be driven.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > male > [noun] > body and parts > antler > branch > stag with horns having specific number branches
hart of ten1598
deer of ten1632
eleven-pointer1803
royal1848
pointer1883
ten-pointer1883
1632 P. Massinger Emperour of East iv. i. sig. H2v Hee will make you royall sport. Hee is a deere Of ten at the least.
3. small deer: a phrase originally, and perhaps still by Shakespeare, used in sense 1; but now humorously associated with sense 2.
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the world > animals > animal body > [noun] > small animal
oryxa1382
small deer14..
mite1594
animalcule1599
insect1601
animalillio1647
minim of nature1667
animalcula1716
beastie1765
beastling1789
thumb1854
14.. Sir Beues (1885) p. 74/2 (MS.C.) Ratons & myse and soche smale dere, That was hys mete that vii yere.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xi. 126 But mise and rats, and such small Deere [1623 Deare], Hath beene Toms foode for seuen long yeare. View more context for this quotation
1883 G. Allen Colin Clout's Cal. 14 Live mainly upon worms, slugs, and other hardy small deer.
Compounds
C1. General attributive. [Several already in Old English, as déor-fald an enclosure or cage for wild beasts in the amphitheatre, or for beasts of the chase, a deer-park, déor-edisc deer-park, déor-net net for wild animals, etc.]
a. † deer-fold n. Obsolete
deer bed n.
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1835 W. Irving Tour on Prairies xi The tall grass was pressed down into numerous ‘deer beds’, where those animals had couched.
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a1000 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 201 Cauea, domus in theatro, deorfald.
a1131 Anglo-Saxon Chron. anno 1123 Se king rad in his der fald [æt Wudestoke].
deer-gun n.
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1834 Southern Literary Messenger 1 157 Double barrelled guns, deer guns, ducking guns.
deer herd n.
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1861 G. H. Kingsley in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1860 123 Peaks..where the scattered remnants of the great deer herds can repose in security.
deer-hide n.
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1815 W. Scott Lord of Isles iii. xix. 106 Goat-skins or deer-hides o'er them cast.
deer-hunt n.
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1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. xxi. 195 We had a deer hunt..somewhat remarkable in itself.
deer-hunter n.
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1828 A. Sherburne Mem. (1831) ii. 51 Nor were we any ways equal to those deer hunters in travelling this wilderness.
deer-keeper n.
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1849 G. P. R. James Woodman I. vii. 138 I have got my deer keepers watching.
deer kind n.
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1875 C. Lyell & L. Lyell Princ. Geol. (ed. 12) II. iii. xxxix. 359 Animals of the deer kind.
deer-leather n.
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1751 in Narragansett Hist. Reg. (1883) Jan. 216 Feloniously taking..in deer leather, and money to the value of one thousand and eighty pounds.
deer life n.
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1861 G. H. Kingsley in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1860 122 The shepherds..see a good deal of deer life.
deer net n.
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c1000 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 167 Cassis, deornet.
deer-sinew n.
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1865 C. Kingsley Hereward vi, in Good Words Mar. 180/2 Sea-bows of horn and deer-sinew.
deer-snaring n.
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1862 S. St. John Life Forests Far East II. 34 I have been out deer-snaring in this neighbourhood.
deer-trace n.
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1897 J. L. Allen Choir Invisible (1918) ii. 13 Beyond which he struck a narrow deer-trace, and followed that.
b.
deer-like adj.
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1840 C. Norton Dream 127 The dark, deer-like eyes.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda IV. vii. liv. 116 Deer-like shyness.
deer-loved adj.
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1833 E. Bulwer-Lytton Godolphin I. xii. 96 The deer-loved fern.
C2. Special combinations. † deer-goat n. Obsolete an old name for the capriform or caprine antelopes. † deer-reeve n. Obsolete a township officer in New England in the colonial days, whose duty it was to execute the laws as to deer.
deer-ball n. an underground fruit body of a fungus of the genus Elaphomyces.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular vegetables > [noun] > mushrooms or edible fungi > truffle or underground fungus
truffle1591
truff1633
earthnutc1660
trub1668
swine-bread1677
tuber1704
deer-ball1854
earth-ball1863
hart's-balls1866
hart's-truffle1866
Perigord truffle1869
oak-truffle1874
1640 J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum 1320 Tubera cervina. The Deares underground balles or Mushromes are another sort of these Tuberaes.]
1854 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860) Deer-Ball.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. Deer balls, a synonym of Hart's Truffles, Lycoperdon Nuts, and Elaphomyces.
1950 G. C. Ainsworth & G. R. Bisby Dict. Fungi (ed. 3) 95 Deer balls, (Lycoperdon nuts or harts' truffles), Elaphomyces fruit bodies.
deer-bleat n. U.S. an instrument serving to imitate the bleating of a deer.
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1852 R. B. Marcy & G. B. McClellan Explor. Red River 27 June (1853) vi. 50 The idea occurred to me of attempting to call them with a deer-bleat, which one of the Delawares had made for me.
deer-brush n. an American shrub in Arizona.
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1883 W. H. Bishop in Harper's Mag. Mar. 502/2 The ‘deer brush’ resembles horns.
deer-cart n. the covered cart in which a tame stag to be hunted is carried to the meet.
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the world > food and drink > hunting > equipment > [noun] > deer-cart
deer-cart1840
stag-cart1894
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > cart, carriage, or wagon > cart or wagon for conveying goods > [noun] > types of > wagon or cart for specific articles > for stag or deer to the hunt
deer-cart1840
stag-cart1894
1840 T. Hood Up Rhine 170 The hearse, very like a deer-cart.
deer-culler n. New Zealand (see quot. 1947).
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1947 P. Newton Wayleggo (1949) 153 Deer cullers, men who shoot deer professionally for the Government or an acclimatization society.
1965 M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xxvi. 260 He was a deer-culler when he wasn't writing.
deer-culling n.
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1959 M. Shadbolt New Zealanders 113 He went deer-culling for a year.
deer-dog n. = deer-hound n.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > hound > [noun] > staghound
receiverc1425
buck-hound1530
staghound1707
rough greyhounda1803
deer-dog1815
deer-hound1818
tufter1856
1815 W. Scott Lord of Isles v. xxiii. 204 Many a deer-dog howl'd around.
deer-drive n. a shooting expedition in which the deer are driven past the sportsman.
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1834 W. A. Caruthers Kentuckian in N.Y. II. 108 Would you put this clamjamfry against a deer drive?
1882 Society 21 Oct. 19/1 Setting out for a deer-drive.
deer-driving n.
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1861 G. H. Kingsley in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1860 143 Mr. Scrope..was a great hand at deer-driving.
deer-eyed adj. having eyes like deer, having soft or languid eyes.
deer-fence n. a high railing such as deer cannot leap over.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > gamekeeping > [noun] > place where deer kept > deer-fence
deer-fence1884
1884 Queen Victoria More Leaves 14 The gate of the deer-fence.
deer-flesh n. venison.
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the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > game > [noun] > flesh of deer
venisona1300
deer-flesha1400
stag1787
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 3603 If þou me dere flesse [Gött. venisun] ani gete.
deer-fly n. any one of various flies which infest deer; also attributive.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > member of > unspecified > parasite > that infests deer
deer-fly1853
1853 J. Benwell Trav. 127 Dusky-looking deer-flies constantly alighted on our faces and hands.
1903 S. E. White Forest ix. 105 The question of flies..in its wide embracement of mosquitoes, sand-flies, deer flies, black-flies and midges.
1937 E. Francis in Public Health Rep. (U.S. Public Health Service) 52 1 This name [sc. tularaemia] was given to the disease by the writer in 1920 after establishing the identity of..‘deer-fly fever’ in man.
1950 A. P. Herbert Independent Member 276 The discomforts and dangers we should have to face ashore in Labrador—including black-fly, mosquitoes, deer-fly and dogs.
deer foot n. U.S. (see quot.)
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1905 Terms Forestry & Logging (Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau Forestry, No. 61) 35 Deer foot, a V-shaped iron catch on the side of a logging car in which the binding chain is fastened.
deer-forest n. a ‘forest’ or extensive track of unenclosed wild land reserved for deer.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > gamekeeping > [noun] > place where deer kept
frithc1275
fermisonc1420
deer-park1838
deer-forest1854
1854 Act 17 & 18 Victoria c. 91 §42 Where such shootings or deer forests are actually let.
1892 E. Weston Bell Scot. Deerhound 80 Probably not more than twenty deer forests, recognized as such, were in existence prior to the beginning of the present century.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > antelope > [noun] > subfamily Rupicaprinae > genus Nemorhaedus (goral)
deer-goat1607
goat-antelope1806
thar1828
goral1834
serow1847
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 118 Of the first kind of Tragelaphus which may be called a Deere-goate.
1693 T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 30 The Deer-Goat..being partly like a deer partly like a Goat.
deer-grass n. species of Rhexia (family Melastomaceæ).
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Melastomaceae family or plant > [noun] > meadow beauty
soapwood1733
rhexia1755
deer-grass1866
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. 972/2 Low perennial often bristly herbs, commonly called Deer-grass, or Meadow-beauty, [with] large showy cymose flowers.
deer-grasshopper n. a locustid insect of Malay, of the genus Mecopoda, characterized by its ability to take long leaps.
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1900 Proc. Zool. Soc. 854 The enormous leaps of..the ‘Belalang Rusa’ or Deer Grasshopper.
deer-horn n. (a) the material of a deer's horn; (b) U.S. a large rough mussel of the Mississippi, Trigonia (or Unio) verrucosa, the shell of which is used for making buttons.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > bone or horn > [noun] > horn > types of
unicorna1533
devil's horn1583
ram's horn1611
greenhorn1725
buffalo-horn1783
stag-horn1815
buck-horn1820
deer-horn1843
devil horn1854
antler1872
rhino horn1889
1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. xvii. 122 A powder horn, and its loader of deer-horn.
1880 Encycl. Brit. XII. 167/2 Deer-horn is almost exclusively used for handles by cutlers and walking-stick and umbrella makers.
1897 Daily News 1 Feb. 6/2 A saddle, probably Burgundian workmanship of 1400, composed of polished deer-horn plates.
deer-leap n. a lower place in a hedge or fence where deer may leap.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > other means of passage or access > [noun] > place where something may be crossed > by leaping
deer-leap1540
1540–2 Act 31 Hen. VIII c. 5 To make dere leapes and breakes in the sayde hedges and fences.
deer-meat n. = deer-flesh n.
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1846 R. B. Sage Scenes Rocky Mts. (1859) 149 Deer-meat at this season of the year is very poor eating.
Categories »
deer-neck n. a thin neck (of a horse) resembling a deer's.
deer paddock n. a paddock in which deer are kept.
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1786 G. Washington Diaries III. 27 Returned to the erection of my Deer paddock, which the bad weather had impeded.
deer-park n. a park in which deer are kept.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > gamekeeping > [noun] > place where deer kept
frithc1275
fermisonc1420
deer-park1838
deer-forest1854
1838 G. P. R. James Robber I. i. 9 In front appeared..a deer park.
deer-plain n. a plain inhabited by deer.
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1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. II. vii. 79 To walk up Mary River Ravine until we reach the deer-plains.
Categories »
deer-saddle n. a saddle on which a slain deer is carried away.
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1861 G. H. Kingsley in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1860 172 It is no light business to get our big stag..on the deer saddle.
deer's eye n. = buckeye n. (the tree).
ΚΠ
1762 J. F. Gronovius & L. T. Gronovius Flora Virginica (new ed.) 57 Æsculus floribus octandris Linn... Dear's Eye, and Bucks Eyes.
deer's foot n. grass, the fine grass Agrostis setacea.
deer's hair n. = deer-hair n.
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deer's milk n. a local name of the wood spurge, Euphorbia amygdaloides.
deer-stand n. U.S. a station for the shooters at a deer-drive.
ΚΠ
1835 J. H. Ingraham South-West II. xxxv. 137 After a farther ride of a mile..we arrived at the ‘deer-stand’.
deer's tongue n. (also deer-tongue) a North American Cichoraceous plant, Liatris odoratissima.
ΚΠ
1883 Cent. Mag. 26 383 Among the lily-pads, deer-tongue, and other aquatic plants.
deer-tiger n. the puma or cougar.
deer-track n. (a) the marks of a deer's passage; (b) a route habitually taken by deer.
ΚΠ
1787 W. Attmore Jrnl. Tour N. Carolina (1922) 24 One part of the Company go into the Wood..to trail for the Deer Tracks, and put the Dogs on the Scent.
1829 J. F. Cooper Wept of Wish-ton-wish ix Several times did I fall upon a maze of well-beaten deer-tracks, that as often led to nothing.
1859 J. Conway Lett. from Highlands 17 A pass, or deer-track, winding up through places apparently inaccessible.
deer-yard n. U.S. an open spot where deer herd, and where the ground is trodden by them.
ΚΠ
1849 C. Lanman Lett. Alleghany Mts. viii. 58 I discovered a large spot of bare earth, which I took to be a deer-yard.
1880 7th Rep. Surv. Adirondack Reg. N.Y. 159 We reached an open forest plateau on the mountain, where we were surprised to find a ‘deer-yard’. Here the deep snow was tramped down by deer into a broad central level area.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.c950- god's dainty
- god's day
- god's death
- god's diggers
- god's dominus
- god's earth
- god's eye
- god's fish
- god's flesh!
- god's flower
- god's foot
- god's forbode
- god's foresight
- god's fury
- god's gown
- god's guest
- god's guts
- god's hat
- god's heart
- god's honest truth
- god's image
- god's kichel
- god's lady
- god's lamb
- god's law