Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To exhibit affection or attempt to please, as a dog does by wagging its tail, whining, or cringing.
  • intransitive verb To seek favor or attention by flattery and obsequious behavior.
  • noun A young deer, especially one less than a year old.
  • noun A grayish yellow-brown to moderate reddish brown.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A young deer; a buck or doe of the first year.
  • noun The young of some other animal.
  • To bring forth a fawn.
  • To show fondness or desire in the manner of a dog or other animal; manifest pleasure or gratitude, or court notice or favor, by demonstrative actions, especially by crouching, licking the hand, or the like; act caressingly and submissively: absolutely or with on or upon.
  • To flatter meanly; use blandishments; act servilely; cringe and bow to gain favor: used absolutely or with on or upon.
  • To show fondness toward in the manner of a dog; act servilely toward; cringe to.
  • noun A servile cringe or bow; mean flattery.
  • noun The color of the fawn; a light yellowish brown.

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

  • intransitive verb To bring forth a fawn.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A young deer; a buck or doe of the first year. See buck.
  • noun obsolete The young of an animal; a whelp.
  • noun A fawn color.
  • intransitive verb To court favor by low cringing, frisking, etc., as a dog; to flatter meanly; -- often followed by on or upon.
  • adjective Of the color of a fawn; fawn-colored.
  • noun A servile cringe or bow; mean flattery; sycophancy.

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

  • noun A young deer.
  • noun A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.
  • adjective Of the fawn colour.
  • verb intransitive To exhibit affection or attempt to please.
  • verb intransitive To seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour.
  • verb intransitive, of a dog To wag its tail, to show devotion.

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

  • noun a young deer
  • verb try to gain favor by cringing or flattering
  • verb have fawns
  • verb show submission or fear
  • noun a color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color

Etymologies

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

[Middle English faunen, from Old English fagnian, to rejoice, from fagen, fægen, glad.]

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

[Middle English, from Old French foun, faon, feon, young animal, from Vulgar Latin *fētō, *fētōn-, from Latin fētus, offspring; see dhē(i)- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French faon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English fahnian. Akin to Old Norse fagna ("to rejoice"). See also fain.

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Examples

Comments

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  • 'So they walked on together though the wood, Alice with her arms clasped lovingly round the soft neck of the Fawn, till they came out into another open field, and here the Fawn gave a sudden bound into the air, and shook itself free from Alice's arms. "I'm a Fawn!" it cried out in a voice of delight, "and, dear me! you're a human child!" A sudden look of alarm came into its beautiful brown eyes, and in another moment it had darted away at full speed.'

    July 18, 2008

  • Could it also be a warm beige?

    August 1, 2008

  • Yes it could! See Wordnet's 7th and 8th definitions.

    August 1, 2008