karakul

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kar·a·kul

also car·a·cul (kăr′ə-kəl)

1. Any of a breed of Central Asian sheep having a wide tail and wool that is curled, glossy, and usually black in the young but brownish or grayish in adults.

2. The pelt of a newborn or sometimes fetal karakul lamb, used for clothing.

3. Wool from a karakul sheep, used for carpet yarn and felting. In all senses also called astrakhan.

[After Karakul, a lake of eastern Tajikistan.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

karakul

(ˈkærəkəl) or

caracul

1. (Breeds) a breed of sheep of central Asia having coarse black, grey, or brown hair: the lambs have soft curled usually black hair

2. (Textiles) the fur prepared from these lambs

[C19: from Russian, from the name of a region in Bukhara where the sheep originated]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Kar•a•kul

or car•a•cul

(ˈkær ə kəl)

n.

any of an Asian breed of sheep having curly fleece that is black in the young and brown or gray in the adult: raised esp. for lambskins used in the fur industry. Compare broadtail, Persian lamb.

[1850–55; after Kara Kul lake on the Pamir plateau, Tajikistan, near where the sheep were bred]

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Noun

karakul - hardy coarse-haired sheep of central Asia; lambs are valued for their soft curly black fur

caracul, broadtail

domestic sheep, Ovis aries - any of various breeds raised for wool or edible meat or skin

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