krait

English
a banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus)

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindi करैत (karait), possibly from Kurukh.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /kɹaɪt/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪt

Noun

krait (plural kraits)

  1. Any of several brightly-coloured, venomous snakes, of the genus Bungarus, of southeast Asia.
    • 1871 December, Dr. J. Ewart, “How the bite of snakes―supposed to be poisonous―may be cured”, in The Australian Medical Gazette:
      On visiting the General Hospital, on the morning of the 22nd of August, I was informed that one of the punkah coolies had been bitten about 8.30 p.m., the night before, by a krait, whose venom is virulently poisonous.
    • 2007, A. Philip Parham, Feeling Free‎, page 190:
      Now, if you run into one of these kraits, you better NOT run away else you're a goner. It'll catch you for sure and you will die in your tracks.
    • 2009, Kate Jackson, Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo‎, page 295:
      Very much in my thoughts is Joe Slowinski, a herpetologist killed a few years earlier by a misidentified juvenile krait, a snake so small that he couldn't tell if the fang had punctured the skin.
    • 2011, Lisa Kemmerer, Animals and World Religions‎, page 71:
      India has a healthy share of poisonous snakes, including kraits, cobras, and two species of vipers, yet Hindu traditions are overwhelmingly snake-friendly.

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