buffalo

noun (plural same or buffaloes)

• 1a heavily built wild ox with backward-curving horns, found mainly in the Old World tropics:

  • four species native to South Asia (genus Bubalus, family Bovidae).See also water buffalo, anoa a wild ox with large horns, native to Africa south of the Sahara (Synceros caffer, family Bovidae, the African buffalo), sometimes considered to be two species, the Cape buffalo and the forest (or dwarf) buffalo.
• the North American bison.

• 2 (also buffalo fish) a large greyish-olive freshwater fish with thick lips, common in North America.

  • Genus Ictiobus, family Catostomidae: several species

verb (buffaloes, buffaloing, buffaloed)

• overawe or intimidate (someone):she didn’t like being buffaloed
• baffle (someone):the problem has buffaloed the advertising staff