Adjacent Words

Ruminant definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RU'MINANT, a. [L. rumino.] Chewing the cud; having the property of chewing again what has been swallowed; as ruminant animals.
RU'MINANT, n. An animal that chews the cud. Ruminants are four footed, hairy and viviparous.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: related to or characteristic of animals of the suborder Ruminantia or any other animal that chews a cud; "ruminant mammals" [ant: nonruminant] n
1: any of various cud-chewing hoofed mammals having a stomach divided into four (occasionally three) compartments

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: 1661 a ruminant mammal II. adjective Date: 1691 1. a. (1) chewing the cud (2) characterized by chewing again what has been swallowed b. of or relating to two suborders (Ruminantia and Tylopoda) of herbivorous even-toed hoofed mammals (as sheep, oxen, deer, and camels) that chew the cud and have a complex 3- or 4-chambered stomach 2. given to or engaged in contemplation ; meditative <stood there…in this attitude of ruminant relish — Thomas Wolfe> • ruminantly adverb

Britannica Concise

Any ungulate of the suborder Ruminantia (order Artiodactyla), incl. antelope, camels, cattle, deer, giraffes, goats, okapis, pronghorn, and sheep. Most ruminants have a four-chambered stomach, two-toed feet, and small or absent upper incisors. Camels and chevrotains have three-chambered stomachs. Ruminants eat quickly, storing masses of grass (grazers) or foliage (browsers) in the first stomach chamber, the rumen, where it softens. They later regurgitate the material, called cud, and chew it again to further break down the undigestible cellulose. The chewed cud goes directly to the other chambers, where various microorganisms help in its digestion.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. an animal that chews the cud regurgitated from its rumen. --adj. 1 of or belonging to ruminants. 2 contemplative; given to or engaged in meditation. Etymology: L ruminari ruminant- (as RUMEN)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ruminant Ru"mi*nant, n. (Zo["o]l.) A ruminant animal; one of the Ruminantia.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ruminant Ru"mi*nant, a. [L. ruminans, -antis, p. pr.: cf. F. ruminant. See Ruminate.] (Zo["o]l.) Chewing the cud; characterized by chewing again what has been swallowed; of or pertaining to the Ruminantia.

Moby Thesaurus

amphibian, aquatic, asinine, biped, bovid, bovine, canine, cannibal, caprid, caprine, carnivore, chewing, cogitative, cognitive, concentrating, concentrative, conceptive, conceptual, conceptualized, contemplating, contemplative, cosmopolite, cowish, cowlike, cud-chewing, deerlike, deliberating, deliberative, equestrian, equine, excogitating, feline, gnawer, goatish, goatlike, herbivore, hircine, hoggish, hoofed, horsy, ideative, insectivore, introspective, invertebrate, mammal, mammalian, manducatory, marsupial, marsupialian, masticatory, meditating, meditative, mental, mulish, museful, musing, noetic, omnivore, ovine, pensive, piggish, pondering, prehensive, primate, quadruped, reflecting, reflective, reptile, rodent, ruminating, ruminative, scavenger, serious, sheepish, sheeplike, sober, speculative, swinish, thinking, thought, thoughtful, ungulate, varmint, vermin, vertebrate, wistful