zareba

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an improvised defensive enclosure or stockade, especially one made from thorn bushes in parts of Africa

   The expedition ringed its camp with thorn branches to form a zareba.

2. 2
   noun

   a camp or position protected by such an enclosure

   At dusk the patrol withdrew into the zareba and barred its entrance.

Borrowed in the nineteenth century from Arabic zariba, 'enclosure or cattle pen.' English has also used the spellings zariba and zeriba. The word came to denote the thorn-bush stockades and protected camps built in parts of northeastern Africa.

Topics