Definitions

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

  • noun A big-game hunter.
  • noun A guide for big-game hunting.

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

  • noun A hunter or tracker, especially in the Indian subcontinent.

Etymologies

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

[Hindi śikārī, from Persian šikārī, from šikār, hunting, from Middle Persian škār.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Urdu / Hindi شکاری / शिकारी (šikārī), from Persian شکاری (šekāri) ‘of hunting’, from شکار (šekār) ‘hunting, game’.

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Examples

  • The shikari — mysterious, wizened, in loose turbans —

    Boy 2009

  • The shikari — mysterious, wizened, in loose turbans —

    Boy 2009

  • For even as Moran brought his right hand to the stock of his rifle, and settled into his aim, my faltering trigger-finger got a fit of the shakes; my aim wavered, and I paused, sweating - and in that moment I learned that, old as I was, I was a better shikari than Moran would ever be.

    Watershed 2010

  • I'd had him before, and he was a damned good shikari - they all are, of course.

    Fiancée 2010

  • Up there, on the top floor, was not only as dangerous a man as I'd ever met, but a top-hole shikari, a night-bird, a trained and skilful hunter who could catch the sound of grass growing.

    Watershed 2010

  • Then, ibn Wahshiyah showed up tangled up in Yeats' imagery in A Vision, although I have to admit that by this time I and my faithful shikari Google had been back-tracking ibn Wahshiyah, not wishing to fall victim to his snares once again.

    Kenneth Hite's Journal princeofcairo 2005

  • Except in the pursuit of various classes of flying animals, a shikari would not, for example, be permitted the use of an aircar other than as a means of simple transportation.

    The Complete Federation Of The Hub Schmitz, James H. 2000

  • But he was, after all, an old shikari and a senior diplomat.

    The Complete Federation Of The Hub Schmitz, James H. 2000

  • Native bearers, beaters, guides, a shikari who knows the country.

    Operation Luna Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1999

  • For even as Moran brought his right hand to the stock of his rifle, and settled into his aim, my faltering trigger-finger got a fit of the shakes; my aim wavered, and I paused, sweating - and in that moment I learned that, old as I was, I was a better shikari than Moran would ever be.

    Flashman And The Tiger Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1999

Comments

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  • hunter, used as a metaphor for those girls who kill with their eyes and what have you

    May 24, 2009

  • I've heard that some "hunt" for big game

    Where imported beasts are near tame.

    No need for safari

    Or wise old shikari.

    They'll come if you call them by name.

    April 16, 2017