buffalo Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun large shaggy-haired brown bison of North American plains
    American bison; American buffalo; Bison bison.
  2. noun a city on Lake Erie in western New York (near Niagara Falls)
  3. noun meat from an American bison
  4. noun any of several Old World animals resembling oxen including, e.g., water buffalo; Cape buffalo
    Old World buffalo.
  5. verb intimidate or overawe

WordNet

Buf"fa*lo noun
Etymology
Sp. bufalo (cf. It. bufalo, F. buffle), fr. L. bubalus, bufalus, a kind of African stag or gazelle; also, the buffalo or wild ox, fr. Gr. buffalo, prob. fr. ox. See Cow the animal, and cf. Buff the color, and Bubale.
Wordforms
plural Buffaloes
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) A species of the genus Bos or Bubalus (B. bubalus), originally from India, but now found in most of the warmer countries of the eastern continent. It is larger and less docile than the common ox, and is fond of marshy places and rivers.
  2. (Zoöl.) A very large and savage species of the same genus (B. Caffer) found in South Africa; -- called also Cape buffalo.
  3. (Zoöl.) Any species of wild ox.
  4. (Zoöl.) The bison of North America.
  5. A buffalo robe. See Buffalo robe, below.
  6. (Zoöl.) The buffalo fish. See Buffalo fish, below.

Webster 1913