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coracle

coracle

1 9.9
A small round boat with a woven frame covered in animal skin or cloth used on rivers
  • noun
  • /ˈkɔrəkəl/
  • UK
: coracle
  • Spring's first day was a warm, sweet song, a time of companionable silences and comfortably shared labor in Mahon O'Dere's coracle.

Examples

  • The fisherman paddled quietly in his coracle as he searched for fish in the calm waters.

  • Clabbus brought his coracle closer to the hunter's boat, and one of them stepped in beside him.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Was she the woman who went round Britain in a coracle for leukaemia?

  • As an afterthought, I dove under the coracle and found a line hanging loose in the water.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • I turned to the coracle and found a fisherman still clinging to it.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Welsh coracles and water cycles could be hired for the specially built boating lake.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Coracles are very light, being only greased oxhide stretched over a frame of split ash.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • It was not until Taian and Clabbus returned in the coracle, towing the boy's empty craft behind them, that they raised their voices.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • In Wales, traditional coracles are often made from willow and covered with animal hides.

  • During a summer festival, we watched a demonstration of people racing their coracles down the river.

Synonyms

curragh
vscoracle
  • UK
1 9.9

A small light boat with a wooden frame covered in animal skin or cloth used in Ireland and Scotland

uses a wicker frame covered with hide or canvas instead of a wooden frame

Surface Forms

coracle singular
coracles plural

Etymology

The word coracle comes from a Welsh word meaning 'basket'. A coracle is like a small, round basket turned into a light boat by stretching animal hide or cloth over a wicker frame, so the name fits its shape and how it was used.