Word.ws English Dictionary

fawn

/fɔːn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/foːn/

fawn noun: a young deer.

fawn: a young deer
Image: Jerry Segraves ( en:Jsegraves99 ), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

fawn (plural fawns)

  1. A young deer.
    • The city recently carried out a deer census, determining there are 313 stags (males), 798 does (females) and 214 fawns (babies) in Nara Park.2024 July 23, Lilit Marcus, “Japan may be sick of mass tourism. But the deer in this ancient UNESCO-listed city love it”, in CNN
    Synonyms:
    deerling
  2. A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.
  3. (obsolete) The young of an animal; a whelp.
    • she [the tigress] rageth upon the shore and the sands, for the losse of her fawnes1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C....

Adjective

fawn (not comparable)

  1. Of the fawn colour.

Verb (1)

fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)

  1. (intransitive) To give birth to a fawn.

Verb (2)

fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)

  1. (intransitive, literal) To show devotion or submissiveness by wagging its tail, nuzzling, licking, etc.
  2. (broadly, figuratively, intransitive) To exhibit affection toward someone.
  3. (broadly, figuratively, intransitive) To attempt to please someone.
  4. (broadly, derogatory, figuratively, intransitive) To seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour.
    • You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Thou with trembling fear, / Or like a fawning parasite, obeyest.1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, book 1

Noun (2)

fawn (plural fawns)

  1. (intransitive, rare) A servile cringe or bow.
  2. (intransitive) Base flattery.

fawn meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

fawn in Tamil

மான் குட்டி, மான் குடும்பம், இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும்

fawn in Urdu

young deer
ہرن کا بچہ

fawn in Bengali

হরিণশিশু, মৃগশাবক, হালকা হলুদ বাদামী রঙ

fawn in Malayalam

fawn, young deer
ഇളമാൻ iḷamāṉ
fawn, the young one of a cervid
കിടാവ് kiṭāvŭ
More languagesFewer languages
fawn in Kannada
ಜಿಂಕೆಮರಿ, ಹಲ್ಲುಕಿರಿ, ಹಲ್ಲುಗಿಂಜು, ಅಡಿಯಾಳಂತೆ ವರ್ತಿಸು
fawn in Tagalog
kigaw
fawn in Arabic
شَادِن šādin, رِيم rīm, تَزَلَّفَ tazallafa, تَمَلَّقَ tamallaqa
fawn in Indonesian
anak rusa
fawn in Persian
آهوبره âhu-barre, گودر gudar
fawn in Vietnamese
nai con

Examples of fawn in a sentence

  • courtiers who fawn on a master while they betray him1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please...
  • Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

All 19 example sentences with fawn

Synonyms of fawn

17 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of fawn

Forms of fawn

Noun
pluralfawns
Verb
third-person singular presentfawns
present participlefawning
past participlefawned
pastfawned

Plural of fawn: fawns

Origin of fawn

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.

Words formed from fawn

Phrases with fawn

Words that rhyme with fawn

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fawn

What does fawn mean?
Fawn means a young deer.
What is fawn in Tamil?
Fawn in Tamil is மான் குட்டி, மான் குடும்பம், இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும். See Fawn meaning in Tamil.
How do you use fawn in a sentence?
courtiers who fawn on a master while they betray him
What part of speech is fawn?
Fawn can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce fawn?
Fawn is pronounced /fɔːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of fawn?
The plural of fawn is fawns.

Words near fawn in the dictionary

  1. fawkner
  2. fawkners
  3. Fawley
  4. Fawleys
  5. Fawlty
  6. fawn
  7. fawn antechinus
  8. fawn antechinuses
  9. fawn lilies
  10. fawn lily
  11. fawn over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fawn (page history and authors); fawn (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fawn (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഇളമാൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); fawn (Kannada 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fawn.wav.

Cite this entry: “fawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.