| 释义 |
▪ I. kraal, n.|krɑːl|
Also 8 crawl, 8–9 craal, 9 crall, kraul. See also crawl n.2
[a. Colonial Du. kraal, a. Pg. curral, corral: see corral.]
1. a. A village of Southern or Central African native peoples, consisting of a collection of huts surrounded by a fence or stockade, and often having a central space for cattle, etc. Also transf. the community of such a village.
1731Medley Kolben's Cape G.H. I. 75 The Kraals, as they call them, or villages, of the Hassaquas are larger. 1771Sir J. Banks Jrnl. (1896) 441 They [the Cape Hottentots] train up bulls, which they place round their crawls or towns in the night. 1785G. Forster tr. Sparrman's Voy. Cape G.H. I. 179 A craal or community of Hottentots, to the amount of about thirty persons. 1836Penny Cycl. V. 229 Kraals of Bosjesmans north of the Orange river who seemed to live in peace under a chief. 1849E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Afr. I. 316 The huts which compose their kraals are of a circular form. 1891R. W. Murray S. Africa 194 A kraal is..a collection of huts surrounded by mud walls or palisading.
b. Used loosely for a poor hut or hovel.
1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 70 That solitary attraction which the poorest kraals of Ireland possess—hospitality.
2. a. An enclosure for cattle or sheep (esp. in South or Central Africa); a stockade, pen, fold. (Cf. crawl n.2 1.) In quot. 1861 applied to an enclosure formed by wagons.
1796tr. Thunberg's Cape G.H. in Pinkerton's Voy. (1814) XVI. 23 A place or fold, where sheep as well as horned cattle were inclosed in the open air, was called a Kraal. 1843Pringle Afr. Sk. iv. 180 He led us out towards the kraals or cattle-folds. 1849E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Afr. I. 313 At the door of the Calf kraal. 1861G. F. Berkeley Sportsm. W. Prairies xi. 179 My three waggons could not make a crall or fence around my mules and horses. 1878H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. vii. 202 The traveler's first duty in lands infested with lions is to build a safe corral, kraal, or boma, for himself and oxen.
b. In Sri Lanka, an enclosure into which wild elephants are driven; also, the process of capturing elephants in this way. Also attrib. So kraal-town, a town formed to accommodate the company assembled to view a kraaling of elephants.
1891Outing (U.S.) Dec. 171/1 An elephant kraal is no simple matter, the drive taking possibly a couple of months to accomplish. Ibid., Gradually, slowly but surely, the herds..are driven toward the kraal. Ibid. 174/1 In less than a week's time a town springs into existence. ‘Kraaltown!’ with its clubs, hotels, saloons, cafés, and ‘chummeries’, to say nothing of suburban villas, etc. 1933D. E. Blunt Elephant ii. 103 Great difficulty was experienced in finding the best way of capturing the young African elephants, the keddah or kraal method used in Ceylon proving impossible in the Congo. 1956R. Pieris Sinhalese Social Organization v. ii. 185 The pannikalē assisted in driving the elephants into the kraal or enclosure.
c. An enclosure in water for holding live sponges or turtles; = crawl n.2 2.
1939Nature 13 May (Suppl.) 807/2 Inshore waters in close proximity to sponge kraals. 1961Encounter Apr. 18/2 The turtles swim in dense kraals.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1817Coleridge Ess. Own Times (1850) III. 957 The Kraul⁓men from whose errors they absterged themselves. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. (1883) 209 The selectmen of an African kraal-village. 1900Daily Tel. 5 June 7/5 The English Yeomanry horses had been kraaled, and, taking fright at the firing, burst through the kraal walls and stampeded.
▪ II. kraal, v.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To enclose in a kraal or stockade.
1865Pall Mall G. 16 Oct. 6, 25,000 cattle and 8,000 horses were thus kraaled on the top of a mountain. 1877T. Baines Goldfields 8 The necessity of kraaling the cattle at night within the village. 1891Outing (U.S.) Dec. 174/2 Hurrying them to the kraal we lowered the huge bars and kraaled our first elephant. 1899Rider Haggard Swallow vi, Now I go out to see to the kraaling of the cattle. |