white-tailed deer

American  

[hwahyt-teyld, wahyt-] / ˈʰwaɪtˌteɪld, ˈwaɪt- /

Or whitetail deer

noun

1. a common North American deer, Odocoileus virginianus, having a tail with a white underside.

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white-tailed deer British  

noun

1. Also called: Virginia deer.  a deer, Odocoileus virginianus, of North America and N South America: the coat varies in colour, being typically reddish-brown in the summer, and the tail is white

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Etymology

Origin of white-tailed deer

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

white-tailed deer

And lone-star ticks are on the move, thanks to climate change and burgeoning white-tailed deer populations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

Analyses of SARS‐CoV‑2 sequences in a database found two human infections in Massachusetts and one in North Carolina that appear to have come from white-tailed deer.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 29, 2024

These images were used to estimate white-tailed deer density.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2024

Instead, police found a white-tailed deer inside the store, roaming down the aisles as caught on body camera.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 28, 2023

We went by the bald eagle, the white-tailed deer, the tahr goats, the lions, and the striped hyena.

From "The Pigman" by Paul Zindel