The Collaborative International Dictionary
Roan \Roan\ (r[=o]n), a. [F. rouan; cf. Sp. roano, ruano, It. rovano, roano.]
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Having a bay, chestnut, brown, or black color, with gray or white thickly interspersed; -- said of a horse.
Give my roan a drench.
--Shak. -
Made of the leather called roan; as, roan binding.
Roan antelope (Zo["o]l.), a very large South African antelope ( Hippotragus equinus). It has long sharp horns and a stiff bright brown mane. Called also mahnya, equine antelope, and bastard gemsbok.
Wiktionary
n. A savanna antelope, ''Hippotragus equinus'', found in West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.
Wikipedia
The roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) is a savanna antelope found in West, Central, East and Southern Africa. It is the namesake of the Chevaline project, whose name was taken from the French Antilope Chevaline.
Roan antelope are one of the largest species of antelope. They measure from the head to the base of tail and the tail measures . The body mass of males is and of females is . The shoulder of this species is typically around . Named for their roan colour (a reddish brown), they have lighter underbellies, white eyebrows and cheeks and black faces, lighter in females. They have short, erect manes, very light beards and prominent red nostrils. The horns are ringed and can reach a metre long in males, slightly shorter in females. They arch backwards slightly.
They are similar in appearance to sable antelope and can be confused where their ranges overlap. Sable antelope males are darker, being black rather than dark brown.
Roan antelope are found in woodland and grassland savanna, mainly in the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, which range in tree density from forest with a grassy understorey (such as central Zambezian Miombo woodlands) to grasslands dotted with few trees, where they eat midlength grasses. They form harem groups of five to 15 animals with a dominant male. Roan antelope commonly fight among themselves for dominance of their herd, brandishing their horns while both animals are on their knees.
Usage examples of "roan antelope".
The poles had been peeled of their rough bark and bound together with raw-hide strips from the green hide of a freshly killed roan antelope, and the body of the litter was made from the same interwoven hide strips.
The walls were hung with trophies of the chase, the long twisted horns of kudu and eland, the gleaming black scimitars of sable and roan antelope, and guarding each side of the double doors that led into the dining-room were the immense tusks of the great bull elephant that Zouga Ballantyne had shot on the site of the Harkness Mine.
Along the rivers, in the forest and in the open were the herds of game: impala twisting and leaping away at the first approach with their crumpled horns laid back, kudu with big ears and soft eyes, black sable antelope with white bellies and horns curved like a naval cutlass, zebra trotting with the dignity of fat ponies, while about them frolicked their companions, the gnu, waterbuck, nyala, roan antelope and, at last, elephant.