Word forms: plural water buffaloes, plural water buffalo
countable noun
A water buffalo is an animal like a large cow with long horns that curve upwards. In some countries water buffalo are kept for their milk and are used to draw ploughs.
water buffalo in British English
or water ox
noun
a member of the cattle tribe, Bubalus bubalis, of swampy regions of S Asia, having widely spreading back-curving horns. Domesticated forms are used as draught animals
Also called: Asiatic buffalo, Indian buffalo, carabao
water buffalo in American English
a slow, powerful buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) native to S Asia, Malaya, and the Philippine Islands, having a pair of large, strong horns growing from the sides of the head: it likes to wallow in mud and is used as a draft animal