fawn

plural fawns

1. A young deer.

   The city recently carried out a deer census, determining there are 313 stags (males), 798 does (females) and 214 fawns (babies) in Nara Park.

   2024 July 23, Lilit Marcus, “Japan may be sick of mass tourism. But the deer in this ancient UNESCO-listed city love it”, in CNN

   Synonyms: deerling

2. A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.
3. obsoleteThe young of an animal; a whelp.

   she [the tigress] rageth upon the shore and the sands, for the losse of her fawnes

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC

1. not comparableOf the fawn colour.

present singular third person fawns · participle present fawning · participle past fawned · past fawned

1. intransitiveTo give birth to a fawn.

present singular third person fawns · participle present fawning · participle past fawned · past fawned

1. intransitiveliteralTo show devotion or submissiveness by wagging its tail, nuzzling, licking, etc.
2. broadlyfigurativelyintransitiveTo exhibit affection toward someone.
3. broadlyfigurativelyintransitiveTo attempt to please someone.
4. broadlyderogatoryfigurativelyintransitiveTo seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour.

   courtiers who fawn on a master while they betray him

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds.

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   Thou with trembling fear, / Or like a fawning parasite, obeyest.

   1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, book 1

   That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: grovel, wheedle, soft-soap, toady, apple-polish, bootlick, bow and scrape, brown-nose

plural fawns

1. intransitiverareA servile cringe or bow.
2. intransitiveBase flattery.