Zool. Pl. ǁ uri (uruses). [a. L ūrus, Gr. οὖρυς, OTeut. *ūrus: see AUROCHS. Cf. URE sb.3, URE-OX.]
1. = AUROCHS, URE-OX.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 323. Those Neat or Buffles called Vri and Bisontes.
1688. Holme, Armoury, II. 130/2. Such as have Horns, and chew the Cud, as … Goat, Elk, Urus, Bison, etc.
1752. J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 583. The bull, in it’s wild state;… Authors have called it … Urus, as if of a different species.
1766–. [see AUROCHS].
1791. Smellie, trans. Buffon, VI. 171. The urus, or aurochs, is the same animal with the common bull in its natural and wild state.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., ii. One of those huge horns made out of the spoils of the urus, or wild bull.
1841. Penny Cycl., XX. 237/1. The forest of Bialoviza … is the only place where the urus is still found.
1888. E. Gerard, Land beyond Forest, II. 176. The ibex and urus have completely died out, the last urus known of in Transylvania having been killed … in 1775.
2. Applied to species of fossil or prehistoric oxen.
1823. Buckland, Reliq. Diluvianæ, 63. The horn of a very large urus … found at a considerable depth in digging away the diluvium.
1869. Lubbock, Preh. Times (ed. 2), vi. 198. The urus, or great fossil ox, is now altogether extinct.
1874. J. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age, 405. Associated with this ancient peat-moss are found the bones of the Asiatic elephant, a species of rhinoceros, the urus or great ox, [etc.].
