kloof

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch kloof (ravine) (South Africa).

Noun

kloof (plural kloofs)

  1. (South Africa) A deep glen or ravine.
    • 1901, William Thomas Black, The Fish River bush, South Africa, and its wild animals
      Forming the south boundary of the valley is a range of disrupted bushy hills, with intervening deep and rugged kloofs and ravines, which constituted the retreat of Jan Pockbaas and his rebel banditti.
    • 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, 1987, Chapter 1,
      The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every kloof.
    • 1978, André Brink, Rumours of Rain, Vintage 2000, p. 172:
      Occasionally the narrow dirt road rose above the mist on the slopes of the high round hills, from where one looked down on the silver clouds in the valleys and kloofs below, a magical, incredible sight.

Derived terms

Anagrams


Afrikaans

Etymology 1

From Dutch kloof.

Noun

kloof (plural klove)

  1. gap, split
  2. ravine, gorge, glen

Etymology 2

From Dutch kloven.

Verb

kloof (present kloof, present participle klovende, past participle gekloof)

  1. to split, to cleave

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kloːf/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -oːf

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch clove, see klieven.

Noun

kloof f (plural kloven, diminutive kloofje n)

  1. gap, gorge, ravine
Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

kloof

  1. first-person singular present indicative of kloven
  2. imperative of kloven

Verb

kloof

  1. singular past indicative of klieven

Verb

kloof

  1. singular past indicative of kluiven
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.