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The meaning of a word often develops from the general to the specific. For instance, deer is used in modern English to mean several related forms of an animal species, including white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, and moose. The Old English deor, however, could refer to any animal, tame or wild, or to wild animals in general. In time, deer came to be used only for wild animals that were hunted, and then for the red deer, once widely hunted in England. From that usage the term has spread to related animals, becoming somewhat more general again.
Examples of deer in a Sentence
Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 18 Sep. 2025
On the screen were images of rolling hills, deer frolicking in the forest, and waves crashing on the shore.
—Gordon G. Chang, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Sep. 2025
Adding recycling collection fees, shifting funding, cutting city funds to programs like mosquito and deer control and the Elmbrook Humane Society, and cutting staff were some of the cost-cutting ideas members of the Finance Committee brought up in June.
—Bridget Fogarty, jsonline.com, 17 Sep. 2025
The kind of person who, when a deer was shot, wouldn’t do the hard work to track it down and finish it off.
—Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for deer
Cite this Entry
“Deer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deer. Accessed 22 Sep. 2025.
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deer
nounOld English dēor "wild animal, beast"
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