musk deer

noun

: any of a genus (Moschus) of small heavy-limbed hornless deer of central Asian uplands with tusked musk-producing males

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Over the past fifty years, there have been efforts in China to raise the endangered Alpine musk deer (Moschus sifanicus) on farms. —Mallory Locklear, Discover Magazine, 12 Oct. 2014

Siberian Ibex wander here, along with musk deer feeding on the lichenous rocks and brown bears that follow the retreating snow fields in spring. —Paul Cooper, Discover Magazine, 7 June 2018

By the beginning of this century, however, musk deer populations had been hunted to precariously low levels, and the animal had disappeared altogether across large parts of its original Himalayan range. —Mallory Locklear, Discover Magazine, 12 Oct. 2014

In its earliest form, musk was made from natural secretions of the male musk deer, says François-Raphaël Balestra, principal perfumer and director of New Ingredients Discovery at Swiss fragrance house Firmenich. —ELLE, 30 Apr. 2022

Not everyone is optimistic about the musk deer’s future. —The Editors, Outside Online, 6 Nov. 2014

On page 98, the annex says that on December 7, 2019, samples were collected from 69 kinds of animals including macaques, forest musk deer, porcupines and bamboo rats. —Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 25 May 2021

In the 1600s, an Armenian merchant started poking around, looking for musk, an incredibly lucrative perfume ingredient that came from glandular secretions of Tibetan musk deer. —New York Times, 5 Jan. 2021

The Akron Zoo recently welcomed a baby Siberian musk deer, the second fawn born at the zoo in less than a year. —Robin Goist, cleveland.com, 21 June 2019

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Word History

First Known Use

1673, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

musk deer

noun

: any or several small hornless deers that live in the high regions of central Asia with the males producing musk