Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A group of animals, prisoners, or slaves chained together in a line.
- v. To fasten together in a coffle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A train or gang of slaves transported or marched for sale.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A gang of negro slaves being driven to market.
Etymologies
- From Arabic قافلة (qāfila, "caravan"). (Wiktionary)
- Arabic qāfila, caravan, feminine active participle of qafala, to close, return; see qpl in Semitic roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Some of the people, who had crossed the river with us, had informed the people of Mareena of the treatment we had experienced in passing from Maniakorro to the Ba Woolima, which district is called Kissi; and withal had told the people that our coffle was a”
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
“The last prisoner in the coffle was the tailor, a gray-haired, elderly man with a wrinkled face.”
“Some of the people, who had crossed the river with us, had informed the people of Mareena of the treatment we had experienced in passing from Maniakorro to the Ba Woolima, which district is called Kissi; and withal had told the people that our coffle was a Dummulafong, a thing sent to be eaten, or in English _fair game_ for every body.”
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
“I came especially to honor a legendary 4-Greats grandmother, Mrs. Mary Poole, who lived to be 125 years old, and walked in a slave coffle from Virginia to Georgia, carrying two children.”
“Mine fastened me in a coffle with other beings: a Sphinx of that city that had committed murder, two Djinni, and a snake-headed woman.”
“I stopped her before she got to her favoritea coffle of asses.”
“Depredations upon the coffle by the inhabitants — Continued attacks from banditti as far as the Ba Woolima river — Difficulties in passing it — temporary bridge made by the natives. —”
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
“Bondou people, there being at this time a hot war between two brothers about the succession: and as the report had spread that a coffle of white men were going to the interior, every person immediately concluded that we were loaded with the richest merchandize to purchase slaves; and that whichever of the parties should gain possession of our wealth, he would likewise gain the ascendency over his opponent.”
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
“We reached Dindikoo at noon; at which time it came on a tornado so rapidly, that we were forced to carry our bundles into the huts of the natives; this being the first time the coffle had entered a town since leaving”
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
“As soon as the front of the coffle had reached Ganifarra, it came on a very heavy rain.”
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘coffle’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Against Nature
Inspired by the creepy decadence of Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans.
katzenklavier, pasilalinic-sympa..., the jewel-encrust..., bird's nest soup, ghost net, bottom trawling, coal industry, cat juggling, rattlesnake roundup, fishing, dancing bear, defoliant and 89 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
czardas, cytometer, cytology, cytheromania, cystoscope, cystolith, cyrenaic, cypseline, cyprinoid, cyphonism, cynophobia, cytogenesis and 1298 more...
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CCle
all those wonderful Britsy words that end with a double consonant followed by 'le'
doddle, bobble, dibble, whiffle, waffle, diddle, piddle, jiggle, straggle, boggle, fiddle, skeedaddle and 125 more...
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Congregation
Clusters, gatherings, and groups of humans.
alliance, circle, council, federation, fraternity, league, assembly, company, group, flock, crowd, mob and 99 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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SCRUBJAYS IDIOM
EXTRAPOLATE, altruistic, misanthropic, predicate, pejoritive, disparaging, bucolic, sylvan, veracity, autodidact, jejune, erudite and 110 more...
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smart pple werdz
petard, anxiogenic, paratactic, nonce, baldachin, eugenic, conflagration, innervate, counterfactual, corpuscular, reticulate, apodictic and 93 more...
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What, another list?
ravishing, ravenous, pronk, brinksmanship, jaspe, mottle, chasm, testy, temperament, ponder, personally, phantom and 206 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Words of interest
interlocutor, amanuensis, anodyne, lugubrious, caparison, recrudescent, concupiscence, banausic, quondam, hieratic, simony, propinquity and 24 more...
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Words for Vampires
incarnadine, strumpet, sobriquet, reprobate, amanuensis, concupiscence, ephemeral, propinquity, Moribund, wildgrave, coffle, exculpate and 6 more...
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2012 Words
Words looked up in 2012
ochreous, palter, tergiversation, twee, demonian, penetralia, somatization, verdure, nescience, lanceolate, saurian, epigon and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for coffle.
Telofy also here Sep 26, 2008
whichbe Gang of slaves tied together. (from Phrontistery) May 24, 2008