bison

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A bovine mammal (Bison bison) of western North America, having large forequarters, a shaggy mane, and a massive head with short curved horns; a buffalo.
2. n. An animal (B. bonasus) of Europe, similar to but somewhat smaller than the bison; a wisent.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The aurochs, or bonasus, a European wild ox: hence applied to several similar animals, recent and extinct.
2. n. Bison or Bos americanus, improperly called the buffalo, an animal which formerly ranged over most of the United States and much of British America in countless numbers, now reduced to probably a few thousands, and apparently soon to become extinct as a wild animal. It formerly extended into some of the Atlantic States, as Virginia; the contraction of the area of its habitat and the reduction of its numbers have gone on steadily with the advance of European occupation; the construction of the Union Pacific railroad cut the great herd in two, leaving a southern or Texan herd, chiefly in the region of the Staked Plains, and a northern or Yellowstone or Saskatchewan herd, in the region of the upper Missouri and northward. The animal resembles the aurochs (which see), but is considerably smaller; the hump is very high and large; the hind quarters are light; the tail is about 20 inches long, ending in a wisp of hairs of about 6 inches additional; the horns, especially in the male, are short, thick, and much curved; the head is carried very low; the long shaggy hair of the fore parts sometimes sweeps the ground; the color is blackish in fresh pelages, more brown or gray in worn ones and in aged individuals; the calves are reddish. Formerly the hair-covered skins were much used as robes, but only the cows were killed for them, the hides of the bulls being not easily manageable. In summer, after shedding its hair, the animal is nearly naked.
3. n. [capitalized] [NL.] A genus or subgenus of the family Bovidæ, including the aurochs, B. bonasus (see cut under aurochs), the American bison, B. americanus, and several related fossil species, as B. latifrons.
4. n. A name applied by Indian sportsmen to the gaur, Bibos (or Gavæus) gaurus, in distinction to ‘buffalo,’ which is used for Bos buffelus.

Wiktionary

1. n. A wild ox, Bison bonasus.
2. n. A similar American animal, Bison bison else Bos americanus or Bisonte americano; also called a buffalo.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The aurochs or European bison.
2. n. The American bison buffalo (Bison Americanus), a large, gregarious bovine quadruped with shaggy mane and short black horns, which formerly roamed in herds over most of the temperate portion of North America, but by 1900 was restricted to very limited districts in the region of the Rocky Mountains, and was almost hunted to extinction.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of several large humped bovids having shaggy manes and large heads and short horns