Word.ws English Dictionary

deer in the headlights

deer in the headlights noun: a person in a mental state of high arousal caused by anxiety, fear, panic, surprise, confusion, or substance abuse.

Noun

deer in the headlights (plural deer in the headlights)

  1. (idiomatic) A person in a mental state of high arousal caused by anxiety, fear, panic, surprise, confusion, or substance abuse.
  2. (idiomatic) A person with a stunned or glazed expression.
    • "What! I thought you were finished with principal photography." He looked disoriented, the deer in the headlights. Hints of extra crew time always had that effect on him.2000, Thomas Hoover, Life Blood, →ISBN

deer in the headlights meaning in Bengali

deer in the headlights in Bengali

দুশ্চিন্তা, ভয়, আতঙ্ক, বিস্ময়

Synonyms of deer in the headlights

Forms of deer in the headlights

pluraldeer in the headlights
alternative formdeer in headlights

Origin of deer in the headlights

From the image of a deer caught in a car's headlights – wide-open eyes, lack of motor reactions, etc.

Words formed from deer in the headlights

Questions about deer in the headlights

What does deer in the headlights mean?
Deer in the headlights means a person in a mental state of high arousal caused by anxiety, fear, panic, surprise, confusion, or substance abuse.
What is deer in the headlights in Bengali?
Deer in the headlights in Bengali is দুশ্চিন্তা, ভয়, আতঙ্ক. See Deer in the headlights meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is deer in the headlights?
Deer in the headlights is a noun.
What is the plural of deer in the headlights?
The plural of deer in the headlights is deer in the headlights.

Words near deer in the headlights in the dictionary

  1. Deer gun
  2. Deer guns
  3. deer horn knife
  4. deer horn knives
  5. deer in the headlight syndrome
  6. deer in the headlights
  7. Deer Island
  8. Deer Isle
  9. deer ked
  10. deer keds
  11. Deer Lake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deer in the headlights (page history and authors); deer in the headlights (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-deer in the headlights.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deer in the headlights.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deer_in_the_headlights. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.