Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small rounded boat made of waterproof material stretched over a wicker or wooden frame.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A fisherman's boat used in Wales and on many parts of the Irish coast, made by covering a wicker frame with leather or oil-cloth; a kind of bull-boat. Also spelled
corracle .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A boat made by covering a wicker frame with leather or oilcloth. It was used by the ancient Britons, and is still used by fisherman in Wales and some parts of Ireland. Also, a similar boat used in Tibet and in Egypt.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A small,
circular or oblongboat made ofwickerwork and madewatertight withhides orpitch , propelled and steered with a singlepaddle and light enough to be carried on a man's back.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small rounded boat made of hides stretched over a wicker frame; still used in some parts of Great Britain
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Getting a body from river into a coracle is a tricky business, but he had practised it so long that he had it perfect, balance and heft and all, from his first grasp on the billowing sleeve to the moment when the little boat bobbed like a cork and spun like a drifting leaf, with the drowned man in-board and streaming water.
A Rare Benedictine Peters, Ellis, 1913- 1988
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The umbrella consists of a large hood, much like the ancient boat called a coracle, which being placed over the head reaches to the thighs behind.
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I am confused about 'corach' which the OED knows as an alternative spelling of 'currach' or 'coracle' - a small wicker boat used in ancient times in Scotland and Ireland - hardly the usage here.
The Old Foodie 2010
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The coracle is a circular basket boat, covered with buffalo hide or black plastic sheets.
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I also happen to feel, or rather, I did, that "coracle" was an especially lovely old word.
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Andrew MuellerOnce upon a time, there was an amazing Channel 4 show called Lost no, not that one, in which teams were dumped, blindfolded, in exotic places and obliged to make their way back to London by hook, crook or improvised coracle.
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In the past two years, I have worked on a Welsh hill farm in lambing season, joined a male choir and competed at the National Eisteddfod, learned to row a coracle, been down one of the last Welsh coal mines, sent my middle-aged body out to train with Cardiff rugby players half my age.
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They cover subjects such as Sports and Pastimes (Furry Dance, coracle fishing), 'Our Heritage of Skill '(The Cheese Maker, The Hand-Block Printer), and 'Our National Parks'.
Being Bould Peter Ashley 2008
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He knelt there rocking to-and-fro in the flimsy coracle, the waves almost coming over its sides, he legs becoming numb with cold and tried to remember.
A Sorcerous Mist Megan Arkenberg 2010
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If the passage is safe, we will follow in the second coracle.
A Sorcerous Mist Megan Arkenberg 2010
chained_bear commented on the word coracle
"There were even a few sailboats visible, far up the loch. Though when one drew near, I saw it was a coracle, a rough half-shell of tanned leather on a frame, not the sleek wooden shape I was used to."
—Diana Gabaldon, Outlander (NY: Delacorte Press, 1991), 350
January 2, 2010