Moose
name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The largest member of the deer family (Alces americanus, sometimes included in Alces alces), of which the male has very large, palmate antlers.
"We saw a moose at the edge of the woods."
- 2 An Asian girl taken as a lover. US, slang
"In military bases in the rear areas it was common for soldiers to have a moose."
- 3 A Muslim. derogatory, slang, slur
- 4 large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male; called ‘elk’ in Europe and ‘moose’ in North America wordnet
- 5 Any of the extinct moose-like deer of the genera Cervalces and Libralces.
"Europe’s giant beavers lived at the same time as the first moose, Libralces gallicus."
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- 6 An ugly person. colloquial, derogatory, figuratively
- 1 An English surname.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"In many parts of the world it is illegal to shoot wild game such as deer, moose or pheasant."
Etymology
Earlier mus, moos, from an Eastern Algonquian language name for the animal, such as Massachusett moos, mws, Narragansett moos or Penobscot mos (cognate to Abenaki moz), from Proto-Algonquian *mo·swa (“it strips”), referring to how a moose strips tree bark when feeding: compare Massachusett moos-u (“he strips, cuts smooth”).
Borrowed from Japanese むすめ (“daughter”).
* Americanized form of German Moos. * Translation and shortening of a Native American name with a word meaning “moose”, such as Dakota ta.
Alteration of Muslim with moose.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.