reindeer

views updated May 09 2018

reindeer (caribou) Large deer of northern latitudes, which ranges from Scandinavia across Siberia to North America. It has thick fur and broad hoofs. It stands up to 1.4m (4.6ft) tall at the shoulders, and feeds on grasses and saplings in the summer and lichens it finds beneath the snow in the winter. It is domesticated for meat and as a pack animal by the Lapps. Both sexes have antlers. Species Rangifer tarandus.

World Encyclopedia

reindeer

views updated May 21 2018

rein·deer / ˈrānˌdir/ • n. (pl. same or reindeers) a deer (genus Rangifer) of the tundra and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America, both sexes of which have large branching antlers. Most Eurasian reindeer are domesticated and used for drawing sleds and as a source of milk, flesh, and hide.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

reindeer

views updated May 14 2018

reindeer XIV. — ON. hreindýri, f. hreinn ( = OE. hrān) reindeer + dýr DEER.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

reindeer

views updated May 14 2018

reindeer (caribou, Rangifer tarandus) See CERVIDAE.

A Dictionary of Zoology MICHAEL ALLABY

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