[ad. F. zébu (Buffon, who states that it was shown under this name at a fair in Paris in 1752).] A humped species of ox, Bos indicus, domesticated from the most ancient times in India, China, Japan, and parts of Africa.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 23. Others among them [sc. bisons], such as the zebu, or Barbary cow, are very small.
1844. Carpenter, Zool., § 269. The Zebu or Brahmin Ox.
1894. Chambers’s Jrnl., 2 July, 488/1. Zebus (the pigmy cattle of Ceylon).
attrib. 1847. W. C. L. Martin, Ox, 19/1. The zebu race is not confined to India, China, and the Indian islands, but is found on the eastern coast of Africa, and in … Madagascar.
1903. Times, 9 Jan., 5/2. In 1868 he [A. B. Bartlett] bred a female hybrid from a zebu bull and a gayal cow.
