Kafir
Americannoun
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Also called Nuristani. a member of an Indo-European people of Nuristan.
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Islam. none kafir a person who has no religious faith; unbeliever.
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Also called kafir corn. none kafir Also kaffir. a grain sorghum, Sorghum bicolor caffrorum, having stout, short-jointed, leafy stalks, introduced into the United States from southern Africa.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Kafir
First recorded in 1830–40 as Kaffirs; see origin at Kaffir
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:
"Kafir" is one spelling of an Arabic word commonly used for "unbeliever".
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2023
She writes of attending the wedding of a young girl, a native of the Kafir tribe: “Kafir girls dread being married, for it is simply taking a hard place without wages.”
From Washington Post ● Jun. 25, 2020
The Ashkar family’s love of winemaking did not diminish with their move to Kafir Yassif, 30 km away.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 4, 2019
“We fill a niche,” said Nemi Ashkar during a tour of his winery in Kafir Yassif.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 4, 2019
Africa.—Kafir bread, the pith of a South African plant; Kafir corn, Indian millet.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
The Birkenhead, a large iron steamer, was engaged in the transport of troops to the frontier, where war with the Kafirs raged at the time.
From Six Months at the Cape by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)
He carried in his hand a long hollow weapon, from which there came forth fire, smoke, and thunder; and the horse, being an animal never before seen by Kafirs, caused deeper dread.
From Jasper Lyle by Ward, Harriet
Then I cut the reim which held the other horse, and with all three following me, I started back, just as the foremost Kafirs leaped from the cover barely thirty yards away.
From A Veldt Vendetta by Mitford, Bertram
Cool and self-possessed to a man, Brathwaite’s Horse are but waiting their opportunity, and ere long they begin to catch glimpses of the Kafirs, dodging in and out among the trees.
From The Fire Trumpet A Romance of the Cape Frontier by Mitford, Bertram
Among the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush it is the custom to erect an effigy to the memory of every adult one year after his decease.
From Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV by Jastrow, Morris
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.
