gazelle

Everyday

1. A gazelle is a small, slim, fast antelope with curved horns that lives in Africa and Asia. tree →
2. People sometimes call a graceful, fast runner a gazelle. tree →

In the lessons

In science and geography lessons gazelles are grassland animals of the African savanna, plant eaters (herbivores) that are hunted by cheetahs and lions, often used in food chains. They are famous for speed and for leaping high (pronking). Phrases: «as fast as a gazelle», «Thomson's gazelle», «a herd of gazelles».

Examples

• A herd of gazelles grazed on the savanna. tree →
• The cheetah chased the gazelle across the plain. tree →
• Gazelles can run very fast and turn quickly. tree →
• In the food chain, grass is eaten by the gazelle, and the gazelle is eaten by the lion. tree →
• She ran like a gazelle on sports day. tree →
• The gazelle leapt high into the air to warn the herd. tree →
• The gazelle kept silence for a few moments. tree →

Note

Countable: one gazelle, two gazelles. Stress: ga-ZELLE. A gazelle is a kind of antelope, not a deer. In food chains it is a primary consumer (eats plants).

In Jewish tradition

It is a clean animal, permitted for food, and eaten as ordinary meat. In the Song of Songs and Proverbs it is a picture of grace and speed: a loved one is like a gazelle, and a person in danger should flee like one.

Interpretation. Tradition counts the gazelle among the kosher wild animals that have split hooves and chew the cud. It reads the Song of Songs images as love between God and Israel.

Examples

• the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the antelope, and the mountain-sheep. (Torah DEU.14.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• Thou shalt eat it within thy gates; the unclean and the clean may eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart. (Torah DEU.15.22, JPS 1917) tree →
• Howbeit as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat thereof; the unclean and the clean may eat thereof alike. (Torah DEU.12.22, JPS 1917) tree →
• Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a gazelle. (Writings SNG.7.4, JPS 1917) tree →
• Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a gazelle, which feed among the lilies. (Writings SNG.4.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• Deliver thyself as a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. (Writings PRO.6.5, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Countable: one gazelle, two gazelles. Stress: ga-ZELLE. A gazelle is a kind of antelope, not a deer. In food chains it is a primary consumer (eats plants).