kaffir dog

English

Noun

kaffir dog (plural kaffir dogs)

  1. A type of hunting dog used by indigenous peoples in parts of southern Africa; (loosely), a mongrel dog. [from 19th c.]
    • 1882, Sarah Heckford, A Lady Trader in the Transvaal, page 61:
      Did she see a half-starved Kaffir dog look in at her kitchen door or crawl trembling towards the dresser, it was not "Furtseck," or "Get out," that she would cry, but "What a shame to starve that poor thing so!" and a piece of bread or meat was sure to be offered.
    • 1954, Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage, HarperPerennial, published 1995, page 276:
      A stray kaffir dog, his skeleton showing clear through tight skin, lay in the pit of blue shade outside the veranda.
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