doe
noun
the female of the deer, antelope, goat, rabbit, and certain other animals.
Jump To:
doe
1 American
[doh]
/ doʊ /
noun
-
does,
plural
-
doe
plural
DOE
2
American
-
Also d.o.e. depends on experience; depending on experience: used in stating a salary range in help-wanted ads.
DOE
1
British
abbreviation
-
(in Canada and, formerly, in Britain) Department of the Environment
-
(in the US) Department of Energy
Doe
2
British
/ dəʊ /
noun
-
law (formerly) the plaintiff in a fictitious action, Doe versus Roe, to test a point of law See also Roe
-
an unknown or unidentified male or female person
doe
3
British
/ dəʊ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of doe
First recorded before 1000; Middle English do, Old English dā; cognate with Danish daa; akin to Old English dēon “to suck”
Explanation
A doe is a deer, a female deer. Doe can also refer to the female of other animals, but it’s usually a deer. You might spot a doe in the spring, walking through the woods with her babies. There are several four-legged mammals whose females are called does, including goats, antelopes, and even rabbits. The males are called bucks. The words doe and buck are like woman and man for the furry set. Oddly, you can also refer to female guinea pigs, mice, and weasels as does, although doe usually means a deer. The word comes from the Old English da, or "female deer," which probably stems from a Celtic root.
Vocabulary lists containing doe
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On a sunny morning in September, a dead doe lay on the side of a small road just off 395, as cars whizzed by on the artery that connects communities along the Eastern Sierra.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
The “Christmas magic” that allows the doe to fly does not work on other creatures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
Hamilton now finds himself pushed doe to eighth, as the likes of Alex Albon in the Williams, his team-mate George Russell and the McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris bank faster laps.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2024
She was, of course, extraordinarily beautiful, with big doe eyes and the kind of bone structure no surgery can replicate.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2023
But I’m thinkin’ straight enough as I help drag that doe to Judd’s to know that by lettin’ him get away with this, I’m putting other deer in danger.
From "Shiloh" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
That 70 million barrels might be the minimum operation levels based on technical considerations, but the DOE seems to “assume optimal operations,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
A DOE official said it was unlikely that the administration would need to release all the authorized barrels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
As of December, the DOE estimated 2.7 million barrels a day could be drawn out of the 4.4 million barrels it was designed to handle, according to GAO.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
To understand exactly what was happening inside the material, the team carried out experiments at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by ORNL.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
DOE already had a computer security group, known as CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability.
From Underground by Suelette Dreyfus
It might read something like, “XYZ Financial for benefit of the John Doe IRA.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 19, 2026
Doe, which hasn’t received much attention but got federal courts out of the business of hearing claims for alleged violations of international law.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Fritz Miot and Laila Doe are two foreign nationals who have lived in the United States for decades thanks to the TPS program.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
Doe External link, upheld the administration’s authority to end deportation protection for Haitians and Syrians.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
"And I'm off to a good start getting assigned to you. You, Mr. Manhattan Doe, are becoming quite famous on this unit."
From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi
Video evidence from the scene does not appear to show Glenn reaching for anyone’s gun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Super flu is not a medical term, and it does not mean the virus has become harder to treat, just that people are yet to build up immunity against it.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
“What the IPO really does here is resolve the capital-structure overhang,” Li said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Half of those officers have been Black or female, which does not seem to be a coincidence.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
Unsurprisingly, the Battle of Bataan does little to endear Filipinos to their occupiers.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
