kraal
1
9.9
- noun
- /krɑl/
- South African
- After the sun set, the animals returned to the safety of the kraal for the night.
- cattle kraal
Examples
-
The turtles were roped around the flipper, pulled out of the kraal, usually by a swimmer, and assembled on the dock for live shipment or canning.
Academic text (1994) -
New homes have to be found; new kraals built; new lands stumped and fenced, and crops carted to these new homes.
Academic text (2005) -
- We have just come from his kraal, sir.
-
I want that line of boxes across here, from the cattle kraal to the outside perimeter.
-
The only reports of enemy activity come from the direction of the Royal Kraal, at Ulundi.
-
From Angola to the little kraal on the other side of the Zambezi, they came.
Fiction book (1996) -
A large party of Zulus has been sighted in direction the King's Kraal.
-
No special equipment was necessary, and, like net-caught turtles, they could be held alive in kraals while awaiting sale.
Academic text (1994) -
Shaka was assisted by a staff of chiefs who surrounded him in the royal kraal (a territorial dwelling unit with the house of the king located at the center).
Academic text (1999) -
Many even went from kraal to kraal hawking tobacco, mealies, mats, paraffin, skin hides, chickens, and eggs.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
1
9.9
A group of simple huts where herders like the Maasai live temporarily with their cattle
1
8.2
An outdoor area where farmers keep and feed animals when they cannot graze
1
9.9
A small village or camp in North Africa
1
9.9
A fence made of thorn bushes that protects people or animals
How Big
Surface Forms
Etymology
Kraal comes from an old Afrikaans/Dutch word for a small 'enclosure' for animals, which itself comes from Portuguese curral meaning 'pen'. It is like the English corral, so a kraal is a fenced place where people kept cattle or lived in huts for safety.