Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small antelope (Raphicerus campestris) of southern and eastern African grasslands, having a brownish coat, large ears, and short pointed horns in the male.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of several small African antelopes of the genus Nanotragus, fond of rocky places (whence the name).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Same as steinbock.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a common small antelope of southern and eastern Africa: Raphicerus campestris

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small plains antelope of southeastern Africa

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Afrikaans, from Middle Dutch steenboc, ibex : steen, stone; see stāi- in Indo-European roots + boc, buck.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word steenbok.

Examples

  • The fauna in the Swartberg and Cederberg protected areas reflects their location close to the fynbos-Karoo interface with species such as grysbok Raphicerus melanotis, grey rhebuck Pelea capreolus and klipspringer Oreotragus oreotragus, steenbok Raphicerus campestris and grey duiker Sylvicapra grimmia, as well as karoo species not usually found in mountain fynbos such as springbok Antidorcas marsupialus.

    Cape Floral Protected Areas, South Africa 2009

  • The steenbok, a tiny antelope, never needs to drink water, instead absorbing moisture from food.

    John Marshall: Report from Obamapalooza: Day Four 2009

  • The island hosts 23 recorded species of mammals, including small herds of bontebok, springbuck, steenbok, fallow deer and eland.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2008

  • The others were waterbuck (2), sable (4), warthog (2), steenbok

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2005

  • The buck population consists of about 253 steenbok, 60 springbok and 50 bontebok - but only three female eland.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1999

  • Other indigenous antelope include steenbok, duiker and klipspringer.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

  • Or a flock of ostriches would career across our path, their huge strides covering the ground at an incredible pace; queer-looking hartebeest were also plentiful, and duiker, steenbok, and smaller fry abounded everywhere.

    A Rip Van Winkle Of The Kalahari Seven Tales of South-West Africa Frederick Cornell

  • On it were usually to be found hares, Namaqua partridges, korhaan, and an occasional steenbok.

    Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer 1899

  • Bonny, (one of Hobson's younger sons), and I went out one day after breakfast to try for a steenbok before dinner.

    Six Months at the Cape 1859

  • Up leaped a steenbok, which ran a hundred yards or so, and stopped to look at me.

    Six Months at the Cape 1859

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.