kraal

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /kɹɑːl/

Noun

kraal (plural kraals)

1. In Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
   • 1861, Charles John Andersson, Lake Ngami, chapter VII, page 89

     Onanis is the permanent residence of a kraal of very poor Hill-Damaras, who subsist chiefly upon the few wild roots which their sterile neighborhood produces.

   • 1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage 1998, p. 88:

     ‘The paraffin box covered with newsprint, and the primus, and the bucket standing on the floor, and a photo of our kraal’s chief on the wall.’

2. In Central and Southern Africa, a rural village of huts surrounded by a stockade.
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 6:

     A kraal was a homestead and usually included a simple fenced-in enclosure for animals, fields for growing crops, and one or more thatched huts.

3. An enclosure for livestock.
   • 2000, Jonathan Amos, "'Funny creature' toast of Botswana", BBC News Online, 3 July 2000:

     The animal, which is now six years old, was born naturally from the mating of a female goat with a male sheep sharing the same kraal.

Synonyms

• (livestock enclosure) corral, pen

Translations

• French: kraal

Verb

kraal (kraals, present participle kraaling; past and past participle kraaled)

1. (transitive) To enclose (livestock) within a kraal or stockade.
   • 1861, Charles John Andersson, Lake Ngami, chapter XXVIII, page 343

     […] he knew that one of these beasts was in the habit of harassing the goat-kids, which, for better security, he had kraaled against the wall of the house.

Synonyms

• (to enclose livestock) corral

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