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water buffalo

noun
  1. a buffalo, Bubalus bubalis, of the Old World tropics, having large, flattened, curved horns: wild populations are near extinction.
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Origin of water buffalo

First recorded in 1885–90
Also called water ox.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for water buffalo

Historical Examples

  • The Kĕlantan man is, to the native of Pahang, what the water-buffalo is to a short-horn.

    In Court and Kampong

    Hugh Clifford

  • The domestic animals include the camel and the water-buffalo.

  • A heron which was standing on the back of a water-buffalo near by saw the affair.

    Filipino Popular Tales

    Dean S. Fansler

  • The most common beast of burden, however, is the carabao, or water-buffalo.

  • Cattle breeding in China was then reduced to the minimum of one cow or water-buffalo per farm for ploughing.

British Dictionary definitions for water buffalo

water buffalo

water ox

noun
  1. a member of the cattle tribe, Bubalus bubalis, of swampy regions of S Asia, having widely spreading back-curving horns. Domesticated forms are used as draught animalsAlso called: Asiatic buffalo, Indian buffalo, carabao
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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