corroboree

or cor·rob·bo·ree

[ kuh-rob-uh-ree ]

/ kəˈrɒb ə ri /

noun Australian.

an assembly of Aborigines typified by singing and dancing, sometimes associated with traditional sacred rites.

a social gathering, especially of a boisterous nature.

Nearby words

corrival, corroborant, corroborate, corroboration, corroborative, corroboree, corrode, corrody, corrosion, corrosive, corrosive sublimate

Origin of corroboree

First recorded in 1793, corroboree is from the Dharuk word ga-ra-ba-ra dance

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for corroboree

The Corroboree began after dark, and the men shouted, danced, and carried on a mimic war to the glare of blazing bonfires.
Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life|Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey
The two factors upon which the later drama depends may be detected even in the corroboree of the Australians.
Elements of Folk Psychology|Wilhelm Wundt
And we plan a corroboree at the colony after the Warlock is down, when there will be some excellently practiced singing.
Sand Doom|William Fitzgerald Jenkins
This evening Fisherman and Jackey showed Wittin corroboree dance.
Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria|William Landsborough

The crowd fled in the direction of the scene of their corroboree, but they did not stop there.
The Land of the Kangaroo|Thomas Wallace Knox

British Dictionary definitions for corroboree

corroboree

/ (kəˈrɒbərɪ) /

noun Australian

a native assembly of sacred, festive, or warlike character

informal any noisy gathering

Word Origin for corroboree

C19: from a native Australian language

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012