musth

American

[muhst] / mʌst /

Or must

noun

a state or condition of violent, destructive frenzy occurring with the rutting season in male elephants, accompanied by the exudation of an oily substance from glands between the eyes and mouth.

musth British

/ mʌst /

noun

(often preceded by in) a state of frenzied sexual excitement in the males of certain large mammals, esp elephants, associated with discharge from a gland between the ear and eye

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

musth Scientific

/ mŭst /

An annual period of heightened aggressiveness and sexual activity in male elephants.

Etymology

Origin of musth

1870–75; < Urdu mast < Persian: literally, drunk

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:

musth

Some attribute Padayappa's outbursts to him being in musth - a period during which reproductive hormones surge in mature male elephants, making them prone to aggression.

From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2023

If the elephant is in the hormonal state of musth, male elephants can get erratic and if you don’t back down, they feel that you’re threatening them.

From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2022

On Jan. 21, 2020, Vinayak, who was likely in musth, approached a herd near the Tekumanda village at the Tamil Nadu border.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 23, 2020

Male elephants get a little too aggressive during musth and Hulk out, sometimes attacking the females they're courting.

From The Verge ● Jun. 5, 2016

What was it the Mahometan syce the musth elephant killed at Bhurtpore said about his wife?

From The Dop Doctor by Richard Dehan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023