a wild South American ruminant, Vicugna vicugna, of the Andes, related to the guanaco but smaller, and yielding a soft, delicate wool: an endangered species, now increasing in numbers.
a fabric of this wool or of some substitute, usually twilled and finished with a soft nap.
a garment, especially an overcoat, of vicuna.
a tawny-coloured cud-chewing Andean artiodactyl mammal, Vicugna vicugna, similar to the llama: family Camelidae
the fine light cloth made from the wool obtained from this animal
1585–95; < Spanish vicuña < Quechua wik’uña
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Pictures have been released of a baby vicuna - known as a cria - born at the Highland Wildlife Park last month.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Fashionistas who purchase the gray, black, new vicuna or cream/beige coat on Cyber Monday get to save $213.
From Fox News ● Nov. 29, 2021
They are not committed to a two-season cycle, private planes and yachts, sable and vicuna.
From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2019
Outfits were prevalently in wool white, melange grey and vicuna beige, dotted with browns, greys, petrol blue a pond green.
From Reuters ● Jan. 13, 2017
The ancient Incas obtained vicuna wool by driving wild vicunas into corrals, shearing them, and then releasing them alive.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Sherman Adams, Eisenhower’s chief of staff, resigned in 1958 after refusing to answer questions about a vicuña coat and an Asian rug given to him by a textile manufacturer.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2026
Dwight Eisenhower’s White House chief of staff, Sherman Adams, was forced to resign when he was found to have accepted an expensive vicuña coat and other gifts from a businessman under federal investigation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
As he talked, Mr. Jones was wearing a black Loro Piana vicuña knit he said had been a Christmas present.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2021
One, the vicuña, is a relative of the llama and provides extremely valuable wool.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 17, 2019
It was made of brown vicuña wool, a luxury reserved for the highest of noblemen and shamans.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
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.
