Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A rural village, typically consisting of huts surrounded by a stockade.
- noun An enclosure for livestock.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In South Africa, primarily, a collection of huts arranged around a circular inclosure for cattle, or the inclosure itself; hence, any closely built village, especially one within a stockade, or a farming establishment or ranch. Also spelled
krawl . - To place (cattle or sheep) in a kraal or shed for shelter or safe-keeping. See
kraal , n.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun South Africa A collection of huts within a stockade; a village; sometimes, a single hut.
- noun Ceylon An inclosure into which are driven wild elephants which are to be tamed and educated.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun In Central and Southern Africa, a
rural village ofhuts surrounded by astockade . - noun An
enclosure forlivestock .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a pen for livestock in southern Africa
- noun a village of huts for native Africans in southern Africa; usually surrounded by a stockade
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The kraal, which is divided into 50 camps, is on the commonage about one kilometre outside Parys.
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Lukwazi, his kraal was the one on the top of the second ridge beyond the Ghoda.
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He then went at once and borrowed a waggon and twelve oxen, and during the night we packed the waggon three times, and took three loads across the Buffalo River to Degaza's kraal, which is on Natal ground, forty sacks of grain, 200 pounds in a box, with clothes and other things, also mats and skins, and four head of cattle and a horse.
Cetywayo and his White Neighbours Remarks on Recent Events in Zululand, Natal, and the Transvaal Henry Rider Haggard 1890
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At distances all over the surface of the kraal were the remains of fires, round each of which slept some five-and-twenty Masai, for the most part gorged with food.
Allan Quatermain Henry Rider Haggard 1890
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At length, branching off from Solomon's Great Road, we came to the wide fosse surrounding the kraal, which is at least a mile round, and fenced with a strong palisade of piles formed of the trunks of trees.
King Solomon's Mines Henry Rider Haggard 1890
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The town is built in a valley, with the exception of Wambe's own kraal, that is situated at the mouth of some caves upon the slope of the opposing mountains, over which I hoped to see our impi's spears flashing in the morrow's light.
Maiwa's Revenge Henry Rider Haggard 1890
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Before the kraal was a wide open space, and on that space armed men were assembled, several full regiments of them.
Swallow: a tale of the great trek Henry Rider Haggard 1890
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At last the only sounds within the walls of the kraal were the low whispering of the two boys.
Dead Man's Land Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain George Manville Fenn 1870
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The size of the kraal was a matter of no consequence; and, of course, to save labour, a small one was constructed.
The Bush Boys History and Adventures of a Cape Farmer and his Family Mayne Reid 1850
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The size of the kraal was a matter of no consequence; and, of course, to save labour, a small one was constructed.
Popular Adventure Tales Mayne Reid 1850
yarb commented on the word kraal
Compound for the restraint of livestock.
September 25, 2007