Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of a pair of hornlike, bony, deciduous growths, often elongated and branched, on the head of an adult member of the deer family, usually found only on males.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, the first tine or branch of the horns of a deer.
  • noun Any of the principal tines or branches of a deer's horns: with a descriptive prefix or epithet. (See below.)
  • noun Now, when used absolutely, one of the solid deciduous horns of the Cervidœ, or deer family, which are periodically shed and renewed, as distinguished from the permanent hollow horns of other ruminants.
  • noun Same as antler-moth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The entire horn, or any branch of the horn, of a cervine animal, as of a stag.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a destructive European moth (Cerapteryx graminis), which devastates grass lands.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a branching and bony structure on the head of deer, moose and elk, normally in pairs. They are grown and shed each year. (Compare with horn, which is generally not shed.)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun deciduous horn of a member of the deer family

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English aunteler, from Old French antoillier, from Vulgar Latin *antoculāre, anteoculāre : Latin ante-, ante- + Latin oculāris, of the eye; see ocular.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English auntelere, hauntelere, from Old French antoillier ("antler, horn"), of unknown origin. The attempted explanation deriving from an unattested Latin *(rarum) ante ocularis ("branch before the eyes"), seems doubtful, as no other Romance language has a similar word of such formation.

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Examples

Comments

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  • A town in Saskatchewan, Canada.

    January 1, 2008

  • Joey: Um, when Cinderella woke up, she was real thirsty…so she went to a 7-Eleven for a Slurpee…where she ran into Bullwinkle. So Bullwinkle says, "Hello, Cinderella. Would you like to come to the ball with me? Not only am I a great dancer…but you can hang your coat on my antlers." Kids love this stuff. So.. (1-2)

    January 23, 2012