[In sense 1, OE. wil(d)déor, wildedéor, alteration (after wilde adj. WILD and déor DEER) of *wildor, pl. wildru: see WILD a. etym. (Cf. ON. villidýr, OSw. vil(li)diur, Da. vildtdyr.) In sense 2, f. WILD a. + DEER.]

1

  † 1.  A wild animal. Chiefly collect. Obs.

2

c. 825.  [see WILD a. 1].

3

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 1. Swa swa wilde deor willnað oðer to acwellenne.

4

971.  Blickl. Hom., 93. Ac biþ þonne reþra & þearlwisra þonne æniʓ wilde deor.

5

c. 1175, c. 1200.  [see DEER 1 β].

6

c. 1205.  Lay., 1125. Ah swa monie þar waren wilde deor.

7

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 169. Ðe sexte dais liȝt, So made god … Al erue, and wrim, and wilde der.

8

1338.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 110. Þe kyng no man suld deme in courte for wilde dere.

9

  2.  Deer in a wild state.

10

1748.  Thomson, Cast. Indol., II. xvii. The wild-deer bouncing thro’ the glade.

11

1817.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, X. iv. The roaring Of fire, whose floods the wild deer circumvent In the scorched pastures of the South.

12

1896.  Visct. Ebrington, in Red Deer, 245. Wild deer in their extremity do get into as curious places as carted ones.

13