caribou

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car·i·bou

(kăr′ə-bo͞o′)

n. pl. caribou or car·i·bous

A large deer (Rangifer tarandus) of the Arctic tundra and northern boreal forests, having large hooves and long branched antlers in both sexes. Subspecies native to Eurasia are usually called reindeer.

[From Mi'kmaq qalipu (partly via Canadian French caribou), from Proto-Algonquian *mekālixpowa : *mekāl-, to scrape + *-ixpo-, snow (because caribou use their hooves to dig through snow to reach the lichens on which they feed in winter).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

caribou

(ˈkærɪˌbuː)

n, pl -bou or -bous

(Animals) a large deer, Rangifer tarandus, of Arctic regions of North America, having large branched antlers in the male and female: also occurs in Europe and Asia, where it is called a reindeer. Also called (Canadian): tuktu

[C18: from Canadian French, of Algonquian origin; compare Micmac khalibu literally: scratcher]

Caribou

(ˈkærɪˌbuː)

(Brewing) Canadian a mixed drink containing wine and grain alcohol

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

car•i•bou

art at carnage

(ˈkær əˌbu)

n., pl. -bous, (esp. collectively) -bou.

the reindeer of North America.

[1665–75, Amer.; < Canadian French caribou < Micmac γalipu]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

caribou - Arctic deer with large antlers in both sexes; called `reindeer' in Eurasia and `caribou' in North America

Greenland caribou, Rangifer tarandus, reindeer

cervid, deer - distinguished from Bovidae by the male's having solid deciduous antlers

genus Rangifer, Rangifer - reindeer or caribou

Rangifer caribou, woodland caribou - any of several large caribou living in coniferous forests of southern Canada; in some classifications included in the species Rangifer tarandus

barren ground caribou, Rangifer arcticus - of tundra of northern Canada; in some classifications included in the species Rangifer tarandus

Translations

caribou

[ˈkærɪbuː] N (caribous or caribou (pl)) → caribú m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

caribou

n → Karibu m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in classic literature ?

As he rolled over on his elbow he was startled by a loud snort, and saw a bull caribou regarding him with alert curiosity.

A band of caribou passed by, twenty and odd animals, tantalizingly within rifle range.

He was in a strange country, too, and the caribou were growing more plentiful, also the wolves.

They were not in sufficient numbers, and besides they were hunting the caribou, which did not battle, while this strange creature that walked erect might scratch and bite.

The debris had been a caribou calf an hour before, squawking and running and very much alive.

But ever he sucked and chewed on the crushed bones of the caribou calf, the least remnants of which he had gathered up and carried with him.

Throughout the night he heard the cough of the sick wolf, and now and then the squawking of the caribou calves.

View in context

A shift of four points into the south-west, coming just at the right time as they entered upon Caribou Crossing, drove them down that connecting link to lakes Tagish and Marsh.

They lived on an almost straight- meat diet of moose, caribou, and smoked salmon, eked out with wild berries and somewhat succulent wild roots they had stocked up with in the summer.

View in context

Here goes lumber from the Maine woods, which did not go out to sea in the last freshet, risen four dollars on the thousand because of what did go out or was split up; pine, spruce, cedar -- first, second, third, and fourth qualities, so lately all of one quality, to wave over the bear, and moose, and caribou. Next rolls Thomaston lime, a prime lot, which will get far among the hills before it gets slacked.

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Liked the looks of it, she said, seeing, in her own words, 'a big bull caribou knee-deep in purple iris on the valley-bottom.' She hooked up with the Indians, doctored them, gained their confidence, and gradually took them in charge.

View in context

It was the worst enemy I had among them all--one who has been after me like a hungry wolf after a caribou all these years.