Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of a breed of Central Asian sheep having a wide tail and wool that is curled, glossy, and usually black in the young but brownish or grayish in adults.
  • noun The pelt of a newborn or sometimes fetal karakul lamb, used for clothing.
  • noun Wool from a karakul sheep, used for carpet yarn and felting.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • proper noun A type of Astrakhan, esp. in fine grades, obtained from the Karakul sheep. See sense 2 and cf. caracul.
  • proper noun A hardy coarse-haired sheep of central Asia, bearing a soft curly fleece that is black in the young lambs, but which grows brown or gray when adult; the lambs are valued for their soft curly black fur.
  • proper noun A large lake in the Pamirs of Central Asia, lying 13,200 feet above sea level.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Central Asian breed of sheep.
  • noun A kind of hat.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun hardy coarse-haired sheep of central Asia; lambs are valued for their soft curly black fur

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Karakul, a lake of eastern Tajikistan.]

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Examples

  • A fur called broadtail, for example, is the skin of fetal or newborn karakul lambs who have been beaten to death.

    Cornelia Guest: Why I Don't Wear Fur Cornelia Guest 2011

  • A fur called broadtail, for example, is the skin of fetal or newborn karakul lambs who have been beaten to death.

    Cornelia Guest: Why I Don't Wear Fur Cornelia Guest 2011

  • After his early dalliance as the dapper darling of the international community, in his karakul cap and cape stylishly draped over a statesman's grey flannel suit, Karzai proved his skill as an Afghan trader.

    Christopher Mailander: Karzai's Next Feat 2009

  • Coastal Bermuda covered the field in front of the house and a herd of karakul sheep kept the grass under control.

    Clean Kill Alexander, Al 2000

  • Help would be given with emergency grazing, communal farmers would get financial help to buy fodder and subsidies would be provided to karakul farmers.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • Namibia's Swakara karakul pelt prices increased by a record 70 percent at an auction in Copenhagen, Denmark on Tuesday.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • Beside the blue van stood a smiling man in the ubiquitous white pajamas, with a cap of curly black karakul - the fur from a newborn lamb, she happened to know - upon his head.

    Call Of The Heart Delamere, Wanda 1982

  • The reason is not our minks, which are inferior to the Americans ', or lynx, which are too few, or karakul, which, after all, is sheepskin; the reason is Soviet sable.

    Gorky Park Smith, Martin Cruz, 1942- 1981

  • Agriculture: largely subsistence farming and nomadic animal husbandry; cash products - wheat, fruits, nuts, karakul pelts, wool, mutton

    The 1994 CIA World Factbook United States. Central Intelligence Agency

  • Agriculture: largely subsistence farming and nomadic animal husbandry; cash products - wheat, fruits, nuts, karakul pelts, wool, mutton

    The 1995 CIA World Factbook United States. Central Intelligence Agency

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