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Matabele

[mat-uh-bee-lee]
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noun, plural Mat·a·be·les, (especially collectively) Mat·a·be·le.
  1. Ndebele(def 1).
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Origin of Matabele

First recorded in 1815–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for matabele

Historical Examples

  • The next factor to reckon with was the Matabele nation and its chief, Lobengula.

    Victorian Worthies

    George Henry Blore

  • Against these the Matabele with all their bravery could effect little.

    Victorian Worthies

    George Henry Blore

  • It is nothing like the work we have in the Matabele mounted police, eh, John?

    The Man Who Knew

    Edgar Wallace

  • He pointed in a dignified way towards the Matabele impi in the distance. '

  • He strode straight away, with these words, towards the Matabele hosts.

British Dictionary definitions for matabele

Matabele

noun
  1. plural -les or -le a member of a formerly warlike people of southern Africa, now living in Zimbabwe: driven out of the Transvaal by the Boers in 1837Now known as: Ndebele
  2. the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family
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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