white-tailed deer

2 2.8

A North American deer with a white underside to its tail that it raises when scared

noun
/ˈwaɪtˌteɪld dɪr/

: ciervo de cola blanca

During the fall, many hunters prepare for the season by studying the behavior of white-tailed deer in the woods.

Examples

And he took me on my very first hunt, which was white tailed deer in South Carolina.
Wildlife enthusiasts often visit the national park to observe the majestic white-tailed deer in their natural habitat.
You just feed the white-tailed deer and watch the sun go down.

Stanley & Iris (1990)
And this morning we had 7 Florida white-tailed deer in the backyard, resplendent in their winter coats.

Blog text (29)
In the early morning, white-tailed deer trotted briskly along game trails.

Academic text (2005)
"White-tailed deer were present but apparently rare," wrote Miron Heinselman in The Boundary Waters Wilderness Ecosystem.

Academic text (2009)
One can find black bears, moose, beavers, and white-tailed deer, as well as hundreds of migrating birds.

Academic text (2007)
Summer watched, mesmerized, as a trio of white-tailed deer leaped in almost perfect unison over their campsite and fled into the night.

Fiction book (1995)
American fishers and hunters flocked to the area when the lake was ice-free to bag walleye, muskies, and white-tailed deer.

Academic text (2007)
On the wall across from us were two framed photographs of white-tailed deer, antlered bucks poised in haughty stances over rugged, snow-blanketed country.

Fiction book (1998)

Synonyms

whitetail

vswhite-tailed deer

5 3.7

A North American deer with a white underside to its tail that it shows when scared

is the standard two-word common name rather than a short informal label

whitetail deer

vswhite-tailed deer

1 2.4

A North American deer with a white tail that lifts when it is scared

is the same in meaning but is the standard common name

white tail

vswhite-tailed deer

1 3.0

A deer with white fur under its tail

is the more common hyphenated or single-word spelling rather than the spaced variant

Virginia deer

vswhite-tailed deer

3.2

A common North American deer with a white underside to its tail

is the general widespread common name rather than a regional label

Odocoileus virginianus

vswhite-tailed deer

Specialized

9.9

A common North American deer with white under its tail

is the everyday English common name rather than the technical scientific term

How Big

moose

118 1.0

wapiti

1 9.1

white-tailed deer

2 2.8

roe deer

1 6.1

mouse deer

Specialized

9.4

Surface Forms

white-tailed deer singular

white-tailed deers plural

Morphology

white-tailed + deer

The phrase is fully compositional: 'white-tailed' literally means 'having a white tail' (white + tail + -ed forming an adjectival descriptor) and 'deer' names the animal, so the full meaning 'a deer with a white tail' is directly derivable. This color+body-part+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows 'white' and 'tail' would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

White-tailed deer comes from the white fur under its tail. When the deer is scared it lifts the tail, showing the white as a clear 'signal', so the name tells us how the animal looks and why people notice it.