Kraal
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /kɹɑËl/
- Rhymes: -É‘Ël
Origin
From colonial Dutch kraal, from Portuguese curral.
Full definition of kraal
Noun
kraal
(plural kraals)- In Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
- 1861, Charles John Andersson, Lake Ngami, , page 89Onanis is the permanent residence of a kraal of very poor Hill-Damaras, who subsist chiefly upon the few wild roots which their sterile neighborhood produces.
- 1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage 1998, p. 88:‘The paraffin box covered with newsprint, and the primus, and the bucket standing on the floor, and a photo of our kraal’s chief on the wall.’
- In Central and Southern Africa, a rural village of huts surrounded by a stockade.
- 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 6:A kraal was a homestead and usually included a simple fenced-in enclosure for animals, fields for growing crops, and one or more thatched huts.
- An enclosure for livestock.
- 2000, Jonathan Amos, "'Funny creature' toast of Botswana", BBC News Online, 3 July 2000:The animal, which is now six years old, was born naturally from the mating of a female goat with a male sheep sharing the same kraal.
Verb
- To enclose livestock within a kraal or stockade.
- 1861, Charles John Andersson, Lake Ngami, , page 343Quietly taking up his gun, Piet stole softly to the door, expecting to meet with a hyæna, as ...
he knew that one of these beasts was in the habit of harassing the goat-kids, which, for better security, he had kraaled against the wall of the house.
Synonyms
- (to enclose livestock) corral