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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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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.