antler
/ˈantlə
/noun
1Each of the branched horns on the head of an adult deer (typically a male one), which are made of bone and are grown and cast annually: a stag’s antlers [mass noun]: combs made of antler...
- Except for female caribou, only male deer grow antlers, which they shed each year.
- One possibility is sexual selection: a brightly colored male fish or a male deer sporting large antlers may have a better chance of attracting or fighting for mates than males that lack such traits.
- Female reindeer rule over males during the short season when males have shed their antlers prior to growing new ones and the females have not yet shed theirs.
1.1Each of the branches on an antler.If you are lucky enough to live on the outskirts of a forest, there is a great chance that you will spy an antler or two, usually at dusk....
- They grow from pedicles that form at puberty and which, in time, become permanent protuberances from where antlers bud and are cast seasonally.
- The branch next to the head is called the brow antler.
Derivatives
antlered
/ adjective ...- They had been beaten out of strips and sheets of brass and depicted a number of themes: a hunter with a bow and arrow shooting an antlered deer, people riding an elephant, two snakes, two women holding hands.
- Look into their big old reindeer eyes and you'll wish you could love those wise-cracking antlered darlings to pieces, but then they lumber into the air and break the spell.
- And they expect all manner of antlered creatures to bound out into the road, even in the middle of Penicuik.
Origin
Late Middle English (originally denoting the lowest (forward-directed) branch of the antler): from Anglo-Norman French, variant of Old French antoillier, of unknown origin.