OX (oxen)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: oxen   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ox mean? 

• OX (noun)
  The noun OX has 2 senses:

1. an adult castrated bull of the genus Bos; especially Bos taurus

2. any of various wild bovines especially of the genera Bos or closely related Bibos

  Familiarity information: OX used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OX (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An adult castrated bull of the genus Bos; especially Bos taurus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("ox" is a kind of...):

Bos taurus; cattle; cows; kine; oxen (domesticated bovine animals as a group regardless of sex or age)

Meronyms (parts of "ox"):

withers (the highest part of the back at the base of the neck of various animals especially draft animals)

Holonyms ("ox" is a member of...):

Bos; genus Bos (wild and domestic cattle; in some classifications placed in the subfamily Bovinae or tribe Bovini)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of various wild bovines especially of the genera Bos or closely related Bibos

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

ox; wild ox

Hypernyms ("ox" is a kind of...):

bovine (any of various members of the genus Bos)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ox"):

aurochs; Bos primigenius; urus (large recently extinct long-horned European wild ox; considered one of the ancestors of domestic cattle)

Bos grunniens; yak (large long-haired wild ox of Tibet often domesticated)

banteng; banting; Bos banteng; tsine (wild ox of the Malay Archipelago)

Asian wild ox (genus of Asiatic wild oxen)

Holonyms ("ox" is a member of...):

Bos; genus Bos (wild and domestic cattle; in some classifications placed in the subfamily Bovinae or tribe Bovini)

Bibos; genus Bibos (wild ox)

 Context examples 

They had lit a fire fit to roast an ox, and it was now grown so hot that they could only approach it from the windward, and even there not without precaution.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was not Harriet's hand that he was certain of—it was the dimensions of some famous ox.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Then he yoked his oxen, and drew the turnip to the court, and gave it to the king.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Giant as he was, the man must have gone down like a pole-axed ox before that terrific blow.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Was it not you, Johnston, who took the fat ox at Finsbury butts against the pick of London town?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well has Solomon said—"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I stored the boat with the carcases of a hundred oxen, and three hundred sheep, with bread and drink proportionable, and as much meat ready dressed as four hundred cooks could provide.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

You belong with the oxen and the drudges, in dirty surroundings among smells and stenches.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Salt junk and weevilly biscuits, with a rib of a tough Barbary ox when the tenders come in. You would have your spare diet there, sir.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was once upon a time a poor peasant called Crabb, who drove with two oxen a load of wood to the town, and sold it to a doctor for two talers.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)