kraal
/krɑːl
/South African
noun
1A traditional African village of huts, typically enclosed by a fence.They said that if money came to our kraals and our abodes, singing would no longer help our children and our wives sleep....
- So at dusk I was led to a kraal where an extended Masai family greeted me with great hospitality and a selection of decorative beaded goods.
- Phillip then moved the two children to his own Mother's kraal and he paid a substantial sum to the family of his wife for this right - otherwise they might have taken the children themselves.
2An enclosure for cattle or sheep.The kraal for the cattle was not only suitable to us but to the hyenas as well....
- I cannot put the cattle back into the kraal so early in the day!
- Villages are centered on a cattle pen called a kraal, or a community building.
verb [with object]
Drive (cattle or sheep) into an enclosure: they kraal their sheep every night...
- 24 cattle from this farm have been kraaled on Wallasey (next door) until the owner of the cattle pays compensation.
- We responded to losses by jackal predation by changing to an indigenous breed (Damaras flock better than Dorpers and resist predators better), bringing heavily pregnant ewes in to a safe camp, and kraaling our animals at night.
- Already with portable electric fencing we will be kraaling the cattle overnight on the croplands to improve fertility of the lands.
Origin
Dutch, from Portuguese curral (see corral).
Rhymes
- mealworm beetle
- mealy
- mealy bug
- mealy-mouth
- mealy-mouthed
- mealy-mouthedness
- mealy pudding
- mealy redpoll
- mealy tree
- mealy zeolite
- mean
- mean anomaly
- mean business
- meander
- meander belt
- meander bend
- meanderer
- meandering
- meanderingly
- meander line
- meander loop
- meander scroll
- mean deviation
- me and mine
- Meandrina