one of an Asian breed of sheep having curly fleece that is black in the young and brown or gray in the adult: raised especially for lambskins used in the fur industry.
(sometimes lowercase) a Karakul lambskin.
a breed of sheep of central Asia having coarse black, grey, or brown hair: the lambs have soft curled usually black hair
the fur prepared from these lambs
First recorded in 1850–55; after Kara Kul lake on the Pamir plateau, Tajikistan, near where the sheep were bred
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When we reached a pasture between snow-capped mountains and saw Karakul Lake glittering in the distance, we got off.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 15, 2018
“You talk about third world countries? We’re not that far behind here, with the circumstances that people have to live in,” said Mr. Karakul, a former lawyer.
From New York Times ● Jul. 17, 2016
There are also sizable deposits of copper, lead and uranium, while the huge herds of Karakul sheep are prized for Persian lamb coats.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was a big picture of a bearded man in a woolen Karakul hat on the cover.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
You know, the one in the dashing striped cape and karakul hat who was once dubbed by Tom Ford the “most chic man in the world.”
From Time ● Jun. 27, 2011
The straggler, a tall, beefy young man wearing a karakul hat, followed the correspondents as they headed for their car a block away.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tribesmen who had lugged a season's karakul skins into market bet their season's earnings on horse races and ram fights.
From Time Magazine Archive
Donning his karakul hat, Thompson paid a call on Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.
From Time Magazine Archive
By dint of cross-questioning Pullingo, we learned from him that the karakul was, as we suspected, a sorcerer—a being with unlimited power over the lives of all who offend him.
From Twice Lost by Stanilard, C.J.
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.
