a. [ad. L. bovīnus, f. bōs, bov- ox; cf. F. bovine.] Belonging to, or characteristic of, the ox tribe. Also ellipt. = bovine animal.
1817. G. S. Faber, Eight Dissert. (1845), I. 405. The worship of the bovine Apis.
1865. Athenæum, No. 1969. 103/3. No wild bovine is now known in Syria.
1877. J. Allen, Amer. Bison, 468. Particularly bovine, also, is the satisfaction they take in rubbing themselves against trees.
2. fig. Inert, sluggish; dull, stupid; cf. bucolic.
1855. O. W. Holmes, Poems, 235. Where bovine rustics used to doze and dream.
1879. Contemp. Rev., 291. Neither in the ranks of bovine Toryism nor of rabid Radicalism.
