moose

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male

   I spotted a moose crossing the road.

2. 2
   noun

   The largest member of the deer family (Alces americanus, sometimes included in Alces alces), of which the male has very large, palmate antlers.

   We saw a moose at the edge of the woods.

3. 3
   noun

   Any of the extinct moose-like deer of the genera Cervalces and Libralces.

   Europe’s giant beavers lived at the same time as the first moose, Libralces gallicus.

4. 4
   noun

   An Asian girl taken as a lover.

   In military bases in the rear areas it was common for soldiers to have a moose.

Earlier mus, moos, from an Eastern Algonquian language name for the animal, such as Massachusett moos, mws, Narragansett moos or Penobscot mos (cognate to Abenaki moz), from Proto-Algonquian *mo·swa (“it strips”), referring to how a moose strips tree bark when feeding: compare Massachusett moos-u (“he strips, cuts smooth”).

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