Karakul

or car·a·cul

[ kar-uh-kuhl ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, (sometimes lowercase)

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. Compare broadtail, Persian lamb.
(sometimes lowercase) a Karakul lambskin.

karakul

/ ˈkærəkəl /

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

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Origin of Karakul¹

First recorded in 1850–55; after Kara Kul lake on the Pamir plateau, Tajikistan, near where the sheep were bred

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Origin of Karakul¹

C19: from Russian, from the name of a region in Bukhara where the sheep originated

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He hesitated, and finally declared that he could not venture in the direction where the karakul had appeared.

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