moose
Pluralmoose
- 1The largest member of the deer family, found in northern forests, the male of which has very large, broad, flattened antlers; also, any of several similar extinct deer (genera Cervalces and Libralces).
A bull moose can be dangerous in the fall, when it will charge anything that comes too close.
From the canoe we watched two moose wading slowly through the shallows.
UsageThe usual plural is moose: two moose.
Similarelk
- 2An insulting word for a person considered ugly.
She overheard him telling his friends that his blind date had been a moose.
Kids can be cruel: the boys in her class called her a moose all through eighth grade.
Similardog
Less common meaning
- 3An Asian girl or young woman taken as a lover, especially by a serviceman stationed overseas.
In military bases in the rear areas it was common for soldiers to have a moose.
2005, Rupert Nelson, Like the Rings of a Tree
Practice
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Origin
English first had the forms mus and moos, taken from what Eastern Algonquian languages called the animal, for example Massachusett moos, Narragansett moos, or Penobscot mos. These go back to Proto-Algonquian *mo·swa ("it strips"), since a feeding moose strips bark from trees.