1. A gnu, which is a big antelope in Africa that has a long tail, bent horns forming a curve and long hair below its chin: The school children on their trip to the zoo were amazed when they actually saw the wildebeests after talking about them in their biology class in school.
2. Etymology: from South African Dutch (in modern Afrikaans wildebees, singular; wildebeeste, plural); literally, "wild beast, wild animal"; from Dutch wild, "wild" + beest, "beast, wild animal; ox".