moose

• enPR: mo͞os, IPA^(key): /muːs/

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• Rhymes: -uːs
• Homophone: mousse

Earlier mus, moos, from an Eastern Algonquian language name for the animal, such as Massachusett moos, mws, Narragansett moos or Penobscot mos (cognate to Abenaki moz), from Proto-Algonquian *mo·swa (“it strips”), referring to how a moose strips tree bark when feeding: compare Massachusett moos-u (“he strips, cuts smooth”).[1][2]

moose (plural moose or (dated, rare) mooses or (nonstandard, jocular) meese)

1. The largest member of the deer family (Alces americanus, sometimes included in Alces alces), of which the male has very large, palmate antlers.

   We saw a moose at the edge of the woods.

2. Any of the extinct moose-like deer of the genera Cervalces and Libralces.
   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 152:

     Europe’s giant beavers lived at the same time as the first moose, Libralces gallicus.

3. (figuratively, derogatory, colloquial) An ugly person.

• The usual plural of moose is moose; compare the names of many animals, such as sheep, deer and fish, which are also invariant.
• Other plurals are rare and non-standard: mooses (with the usual English plural-forming suffix -s) and meese (jocularly formed by analogy to goose → geese).

• (largest member of the deer family (Alces americanus)): elk (British, Commonwealth), Newfoundland speed bump (Canadian, humorous)

• → Irish: mús
• → Khmer: មូហ្ស (muuhsɑɑ)
• → Korean: 무스 (museu)
• → Persian: موس (mus)
  • → Arabic: مُوظ (mūẓ)
• → Thai: มูส (múus)
  • Thai: กวางมูส (gwaang-múus)
• → Welsh: mws

• moose on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Japanese むすめ (“girl”).

moose

1. (US, military, slang) An Asian girl taken as a lover.
   • 2005, Rupert Nelson, Like the Rings of a Tree, page 279:

     In military bases in the rear areas it was common for soldiers to have a moose.

   • 2011, Michael Cullen Green, Black Yanks in the Pacific, page 75:

     Even the lowest ranked serviceman, because of his salary, benefits, and status as an American occupationaire, could afford to “maintain a ‘Moose’ and still take care of his other obligations.”

moose (plural mooseg)

1. worm
2. caterpillar

From Middle English mous.

• IPA^(key): [mus]

moose (plural mice)

1. mouse