- a slender, catlike mammal, Lynx caracal, with a reddish-brown coat and long tufted ears, inhabiting northern Africa and India.
- the fur of this animal.
Origin of caracal
1750–60; < French, apparently Buffon's adaption of Turkish karakulak lynx (kara black + kulak ear)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for caracal
He had lost his way following the caracal, had wandered about he knew not where.The Ruined Cities of Zululand
Hugh Mulleneux Walmsley
The caracal lies on a shelf in its den in the Zoological Gardens quietly licking its fur.
Their chiefs wore karosses of the skin of the wild cat, leopard or caracal.
The caracal has exerted a moral influence over me which I have been unable to resist.
The lynx inhabits cold and at most temperate climates, while the caracal is to be found only in the warmest countries.Buffon's Natural History. Volume VII (of 10)
Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon
- Also called: desert lynx a lynxlike feline mammal, Lynx caracal, inhabiting deserts of N Africa and S Asia, having long legs, a smooth coat of reddish fur, and black-tufted ears
- the fur of this animal
C18: from French, from Turkish kara kūlāk, literally: black ear
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