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  1. heifer love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A young cow, especially one that has not yet given birth to a calf.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A young cow.
  2. n. A young female terrapin, Malaclemmys palustris, measuring 5 or 6 inches along the lower shell. See cow terrapin, under terrapin.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A young female bovine (cow) that has not yet had a calf.
  2. n. slang An ugly or objectionable woman; a cow.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) A young cow.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. young cow

Etymologies

  1. Middle English hayfare, hayfre, from Old English heahfore, hēahfre, compound of (1) *heag- ‘mating’ (compare dialectal German Hagen, Hegel ‘breeding bull’, Middle Dutch haechdroese ‘genitals’, Old English hagan ‘id.’), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱak- ‘to be able, help’ (compare Sanskrit śaknóti ‘to be able’, Avestan sak- ‘to agree’) and (2) -fore (compare English elver, fieldfare, Old English sceolfor ‘cormorant’). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old English hēahfore. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “These men drilled a long time on what they called a heifer dance -- a beautiful spectacular, and highly moral and instructive quadruped clog, sirloin shuffle, and cow gallop, to the music of a piano-forte.”

    Remarks

  • “The Holstein heifer has one neck and two ears – but also four eyes, two noses and two mouths.”

    Blinkie The Two-Headed Calf | Impact Lab

  • “What do you call a heifer in a number-seven football jersey carrying an M-16 assault rifle?' he asked the assembly, pitching a gag he'd heard on Off The Ball.”

    Be My Enemy

  • “Gianna heard Bubbles, who sat directly behind her, mumble something derogatory in response to being called a heifer.”

    Simon & Schuster: Stealing Candy

  • “A heifer is a different story, a cause for celebration.”

    Simon & Schuster: The Dirty Life

  • “This is a little Holstein heifer--Holstein is a breed of milk cow and a heifer is a female--she will grow up to be the sweet little bovine with the brown eyes and the cud chewing and the patient waiting for milking.....”

    The 12 Days Of Christmas - Day 8: Guest Post By Josie Gwin

  • “Then Zeus changed the maiden into a heifer, to save her from the anger of Here, but presently Here learned that the heifer was the maiden whom she hated, and she went to Zeus, and said,”

    Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life

  • “A certain man at his death left his son, then a child, a cow-calf, which wandered in the desert till he came to age; at which time his mother told him the heifer was his, and bid him fetch her, and sell her for three pieces of gold.”

    The Koran (Al-Qur'an)

  • “Secondly, a heifer is a female and a steer is a castrated bull.”

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local

  • “As when any mountain-nurtured lion, relying on his strength, has carried off from the pasturing herd a heifer, which is the best; but first he breaks its neck, seizing it in his strong teeth, and then tearing it in pieces, laps up the blood and all the entrails; whilst around him dogs and herdsmen shout very frequently from a distance, nor do they wish to go against him, for pale fear violently seizes them: thus the soul of no one within his breast dared to advance against glorious Menelaus.”

    The Iliad of Homer (1873)

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. moo-cow
  1. young mammal
  1. cow

same context (23)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. bullock
  2. calve
  3. colt
  4. ewe
  1. foal
  2. kine
  3. ox
  4. filly
  1. goat
  2. czar
  3. buffalo
  4. cub
  1. yak
  2. yearlings
  3. lamb
  4. elk
  1. caribou
  2. bull
  3. hog
  4. stag
  1. steer
  2. buffaloe
  3. boar

rhymes (8)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Fifer
  1. Zephyr
  1. cipher
  1. cypher
  1. decipher
  1. fifer
  1. lifer
  1. zephyr

reverse dictionary (17)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. Io
  2. haifer
  3. heighfer
  1. maverick
  2. hefer
  3. variolo-vaccine
  1. quey
  2. heckfar
  3. stirk
  1. stocker
  2. io
  3. ruck
  1. Argus
  2. why
  3. runt
  1. volcanalia
  2. yearling

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. animal
  1. word of the day
  1. cattle
  1. cow
  1. Grade Level 8

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Lists

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Comments

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  • dbekeny ZEKE
    Say! Get in there before I make a dime bank
    out of you! Listen, kid, are you going to
    let that old Gulch heifer try and buffalo
    you?
    Jul 9, 2010

  • grant_barrett This word was chosen as Wordnik word of the day. Nov 11, 2009

  • treeseed a springing heifer or a springer is a young cow about to deliver her first calf

    Feb 3, 2008

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‘heifer’ has been looked up 3706 times, loved by 2 people, added to 30 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.