stag-headed, a.
1. Of an animal: Having a head shaped somewhat like that of a stag.
| 1683 Lond. Gaz. No. 1802/4 A Chesnut Nag, 14 hands high,..Stag-headed. 18.. Young's Annals Agric. XXX. 333 in Britten Old Country Words (1880) 110 The horn is found neither drooping too low, nor rising too high, nor with points inverted, called here [Somerset] stag-headed. |
2. Of a tree or forest of trees: Having the topmost branches bare and withered.
| 1769 Phil. Trans. LIX. 28 This grove of chesnuts..begin to decay very much at the tops, being what the woodwards term stag-headed. 1790 W. H. Marshall Midland Counties II. 441 Stagheaded, as an old overgrown oak; having the stumps of boughs standing out of its top. 1843 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IV. ii. 396 Sometimes trees, which at first were good bearers, become stag-headed and unfruitful. 1882 Garden 14 Jan. 27/3 Some oaks are old and stag-headed at 100 years, while others are vigorous at 300 years. |