reindeer

noun

1. (plural)Any Arctic and subarctic-dwelling deer of the species Rangifer tarandus, with a number of subspecies.

   “Santa Claus' sleigh is supposedly pulled by nine reindeer”

   “Here is a prodigious number of wild beaſts, as ſtags, bears, wolves, foxes of various colours, martens, hares, glittens, beavers, otters, elk, and rein deer: the latter is leſs than a stag.”

   “The rein-deer, which in Scandinavia can scarcely exist to the south of the sixty-fifth parallel, descends, in consequence of the greater coldness of the climate, to the fiftieth degree, in Chinese Tartary, and often roves into a country of more southern latitude than any part of England.”

   “Herds of wandering reindeer are frequently seen, and may even hold up the train while they cross the unfenced line to reach their feeding grounds.”

   “Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.”

2. (plural)Any species, subspecies, ecotype, or other scientific grouping of such animals.

verb

1. To herd or farm reindeer