wild deer
[In sense 1, OE. wil(d)déor, wildedéor, alteration (after wilde adj. wild and déor deer) of *wildor, pl. wildru: see wild a. etym. (Cf. ON. villid{yacu}r, OSw. vil(li)diur, Da. vildtdyr.) In sense 2, f. wild a. + deer.]
† 1. A wild animal. Chiefly collect. Obs.
| c 825 [see wild a. 1]. c 888 ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §1 Swa swa wilde deor willnað oðer to acwellenne. 971 Blickl. Hom. 95 Ac biþ þonne reþra & þearlwisra þonne æniᵹ wilde deor. c 1175, c 1200 [see deer 1 β]. c 1205 Lay. 1125 Ah swa monie þar waren wilde deor. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 169 Ðe sexte dais liȝt, So made god..Al erue, and wrim, and wilde der. 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 110 Þe kyng no man suld deme in courte for wilde dere. |
2. Deer in a wild state.
| 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. ii. xvii, The wild-deer bouncing thro' the glade. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam x. iv, The roaring Of fire, whose floods the wild deer circumvent In the scorched pastures of the South. 1896 Visct. Ebrington in Red Deer 245 Wild deer in their extremity do get into as curious places as carted ones. |