fawn
/fɔːn/ noun, adjective, verb
Also a form of faun
Forms fawns fawning fawned
- noun A young deer.
- noun A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.
- noun (obsolete) The young of an animal; a whelp.
- adjective Of the fawn colour.
- verb (intransitive) To give birth to a fawn.
- verb (literal, of a dog) To show devotion or submissiveness by wagging its tail, nuzzling, licking, etc.
- verb To exhibit affection toward someone.
- verb To attempt to please someone.
- verb (derogatory) To seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour. [with on or upon]
- noun (rare) A servile cringe or bow.
- noun Base flattery.
Synonyms
deerling grovel wheedle soft-soap toady apple-polish bootlick bow and scrape brownnose butter up dickride duchess fawn over fellate flannel honey around honey up kiss someone's ass kiss someone's ring kiss up dun greyish brown grayish brown crawl creep cringe cower truckle kowtow kotow
Etymology
From Middle English fawne, fowne, foun, from Old French faon, foon, feon, from Vulgar Latin *fētōnem, from Latin fētus (“offspring, young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”). Displaced native Old English hindċealf (literally “deer calf”). Doublet of fetus.
From Middle English fawnen, from Old English fagnian, alternative form of fæġnian (“to celebrate”), whence Middle English fainen, English fain. Cognate with Old Norse fagna. See also fain.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A young deer; a buck or doe of the first year. See Buck.
- noun The young of an animal; a whelp. [Obs.]
- adjective Of the color of a fawn; fawn-colored.
- verb To bring forth a fawn.
Etymology [OF. faon the young one of any beast, a fawn, F. faon a fawn, for fedon, fr. L. fetus. See Fetus.]
Etymology [Cf. F. faonner.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fawn”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details