Definition of "ruminant" [ru•mi•nant]

• Any of various hoofed, even-toed, usually horned mammals of the suborder Ruminantia, such as cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and giraffes, characteristically having a stomach divided into four compartments and chewing a cud consisting of regurgitated, partially digested food. (noun)
• Characterized by the chewing of cud. (adjective)
• Of or belonging to the Ruminantia. (adjective)
• Meditative; contemplative. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another."
• "If you want to subsist solely on weeds like some sort of bipedal ruminant, that is your right - go for it."
• "When a cow eats infected tissue -- it's called the ruminant feed that they used to get this from -- it can take as much as eight years for that cow to start showing symptoms."