corral
Americannoun
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corrals
plural
-
an enclosure or pen for horses, cattle, etc.
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a circular enclosure formed by wagons during an encampment, as by covered wagons crossing the North American plains in the 19th century, for defense against attack.
verb (used with object)
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corrals,
present (3rd person singular)
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corralled,
past participle, past
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corralling
present participle
-
to confine in or as if in a corral.
-
Informal.
-
to seize; capture.
-
to collect, gather, or garner.
to corral votes.
-
-
to form (wagons) into a corral.
noun
-
an enclosure for confining cattle or horses
-
(formerly) a defensive enclosure formed by a ring of covered wagons
verb
-
to drive into and confine in or as in a corral
-
informal to capture
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
corralsimple
-
corralssimple
-
have corralledperfect
-
has corralledperfect
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am corrallingprogressive
-
are corrallingprogressive
-
is corrallingprogressive
-
have been corrallingperfect progressive
-
has been corrallingperfect progressive
Past
-
corralledsimple
-
had corralledperfect
-
was corrallingprogressive
-
were corrallingprogressive
-
had been corrallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of corral
1575–85; < Spanish < Late Latin *currāle enclosure for carts, equivalent to Latin curr ( us ) wagon, cart (derivative of currere to run) + -āle, neuter of -ālis -al 1
Explanation
A corral is a pen for horses, cows, or other livestock. If your sheep get out of the corral, you'll have to take the dogs out to help you round them up again. The word corral comes either from the Spanish word corro, which means ring, or from the Old Portuguese word curral, meaning pen or enclosure. As a verb, corral means to gather up or collect. If you're in charge of the big library book sale, you'll have to corral lots of people into helping you. If you make a defensive circle with wagons or other vehicles, you have also corralled the wagons.
Vocabulary lists containing corral
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mopping up: Neutralizing antibodies effectively corral HIV so there is less virus circulating in the body's blood supply.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026
One morning in July 1992, Raynella said, she found him dead in their cattle corral, a hoofprint on the chest of his overalls, apparently knocked down and trampled as he fed the herd.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
That proved costly less than a minute later when Markanich, racing up the center, got behind Galaxy defender Mauricio Cuevas to corral a long ball from Joaquín Pereyra, then beat keeper JT Marcinkowski cleanly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2026
Speaking on Good Morning Ulster, she described how "in many cases" social media companies are "like the wild west and trying to corral it and control it can be incredibly difficult".
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
The conversation was calm, comfortable, like it had been years before on those dusky evenings in the corral.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
Multiple buildings stand on the property, including three separate guesthouses, a 5,500-square-foot movie theater with a stage, several barns, animal shelter facilities, corrals, and a maintenance shop.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
WSJ | Buy Side: This leather-clad tray charges two devices and corrals your useful clutter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026
Alongside survey work, the women help villagers access government insurance schemes for their livestock and promote the use of predator‑proof corrals - stone or mesh enclosures that protect animals at night.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026
The researchers suggest that by carefully arranging the positions of pinned atoms on a surface, they may be able to build larger and more intricate atomic corrals.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 11, 2025
They had come by train from a bull-breeding ranch in Castile, and had been unloaded off flat-cars at the station and brought up here to be let out of their cages into the corrals.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Successfully corralled, Franz earns the degree of doctor of law, and achieves success in the insurance industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Now food stalls are limited, corralled onto a single block.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
And so the first hawk, Hamish, was corralled into service.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
When Deandre Ayton blocked a shot at the rim with 7:18 remaining in the second quarter Friday, LeBron James corralled the rebound and pushed the ball up the court.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026
On Saturday evenings they were let out two hours early and Amelia corralled Lyddie and Prudence for long walks along the river before it grew too dark.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
“That’s all we are asking people to do: Bring your dogs in at night, night pen livestock,” she said, referring to corralling the animals into a securely fenced area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
Up to now, nanoscale corralling has only been achieved for photons and electrons; this study is the first demonstration that atoms themselves can be corralled in a similar way.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 11, 2025
A drawing on a stone discovered in Jordan in 1951 depicted the kites as enclosures for animals, but whether it was for hunting or corralling livestock wasn’t clear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
For years, the environmental movement, which played such a pivotal role corralling American dam building, was focused more on improving automobile fuel economy and promoting electric vehicles than reducing the total amount of driving.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2024
Shorty, the guy I met over bets with Fat Frankie, is in there corralling balls atop each table with a wooden triangle.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
