staggart

English

Alternative forms

• staggard

Noun

staggart (plural staggarts)

1. A four-year-old male deer, identified by having three-pronged antlers.
   • 1876, James Harris, Logs for the Christmas fire, page 79:

     Now the antler'd monarch springs From his lair in tangled glade ; Now through waken'd forest rings Echo with the music made ; Now the bass of manly throat (As the bounding staggart flies) Mingles with the softer note, As some dame or maiden tries With her silv'ry voice to cheer Laggard hound, who panting hies Baying deeply in the rear;

   • 1888, The Christian Union - Volume 37, page 10:

     Over came all the herd, one by one, hinds and calves, “brockets” and “staggarts,” then the “warrantable deer,” the rear brought up by a magnificent old stag.

   • 1937, A Century of Nature Stories, page 535:

     Stumberleap reared up on his hind legs, then plunged down his head, and his antlers rattled against the antlers of the staggart.

   • 1938, Henry Williamson, Goodbye, West Country, page 212:

     I feel like an old stag squired by a staggart: but as Windles and the fan get on happily together, all is well.

Anagrams

• Taggarts