kloof

[ kloof ]

/ kluf /

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noun

(in South Africa) a deep glen; ravine.

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Origin of kloof

1725–35; <Afrikaans; akin to cleave²

Words nearby kloof

klister, Klondike, Klondike gold rush, klondyker, klong, kloof, klootchman, Klopstock, klösse, kluck, Kluckhohn

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use kloof in a sentence

The houses seemed to be tumbling over one another in a "kloof."
My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War|Ben Viljoen.
Nor was there any in the carrying it out; for, as with the camp in the kloof, all were now eager to move away from this one.
The Vee-Boers|Mayne Reid
Most of the effects intended for removal had been got down on the second day, the waggons alone remaining in the kloof.
The Vee-Boers|Mayne Reid
A dense cloud of dust is rolling down the kloof, and through it can be seen a forest of bristling horns, a sea of rolling eyes.
The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley|Bertram Mitford

So they turned inland and rode towards that very kloof where years before Suzanne had discovered the shipwrecked boy.
Swallow|H. Rider Haggard

British Dictionary definitions for kloof

kloof

/ (kluːf) /

noun

a mountain pass or gorge in southern Africa

Word Origin for kloof

C18: from Afrikaans, from Middle Dutch clove a cleft; see cleave 1

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