chamois

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An extremely agile goat antelope (Rupicapra rupicapra) of mountainous regions of Europe, having upright horns with backward-hooked tips.
2. n. A soft leather made from the hide of this animal or other animals such as deer or sheep.
3. n. A piece of such leather, or a cotton fabric made to resemble it, used as a polishing cloth or in shirts.
4. n. A moderate to grayish yellow.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A species of goat-like or capriform antelope, Rupicapra tragus, formerly Antilope rupicapra, inhabiting high inaccessible mountains in Europe and western Asia. Its size is about that of a well-grown goat, and it is so agile that it can clear at a bound crevices 16 or 18 feet wide. The chamois is one of the most wary of antelopes, and possesses the power of scenting man at an almost incredible distance, so that the hunting of it is an occupation of extreme difficulty and much danger. Its skin is made into a soft leather.
2. n. A kind of soft leather made from various skins dressed with fish-oil: so called because first prepared from the skin of the chamois. In recent times it has been largely used for warm underclothing. See wash-leather.
3. n. A very soft leather made from sheepskin; the flesh side of split sheepskin (the grain side being used for fancy leather). This is the so-called ‘chamois-skin’ sold in the shops. Probably no genuine chamois-skins are used commercially.
4. n. In textile coloring, a name sometimes applied to iron buff because of its resemblance in color to chamois-skin. See iron buff, under buff, n.
5. To tan or dress by means of repeated oiling and milling.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Chamois-coloured.
2. n. A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.
3. n. Usually as “chamois leather” Soft pliable leather originally made from the skin of chamois (nowadays the hides of deer, sheep, and other species of goat are alternatively used).
4. n. The traditional colour of chamois leather.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A small species of antelope (Rupicapra tragus), living on the loftiest mountain ridges of Europe, as the Alps, Pyrenees, etc. It possesses remarkable agility, and is a favorite object of chase.
2. n. A soft leather made from the skin of the chamois, or from sheepskin, etc.; -- called also chamois leather, and chammy or shammy leather. See Shammy.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a soft suede leather formerly from the skin of the chamois antelope but now from sheepskin
2. n. hoofed mammal of mountains of Eurasia having upright horns with backward-hooked tips