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  1. kelpie love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A malevolent water spirit of Scottish legend, usually having the shape of a horse and rejoicing in or causing drownings.
  2. n. Any of a breed of sheepdog originating in Australia.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An imaginary spirit of the waters, generally appearing in the form of horse, who was believed to give warning of approaching death by drowning, and sometimes maliciously to assist in drowning persons.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.
  2. n. An Australian breed of sheepdog.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Scotch Myth.) An imaginary spirit of the waters, horselike in form, vulgarly believed to warn, by preternatural noises and lights, those who are to be drowned.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. (Scottish folklore) water spirit in the form of horse that likes to drown its riders
  2. n. an Australian sheepdog with pointed ears

Etymologies

  1. The dog breed derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup), which name derives from the mythological spirit. (Wiktionary)
  2. Probably of Celtic origin; akin to Scottish Gaelic colpach, heifer.From Kelpie, the name of an early specimen of the breed. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The kelpie is a working sheepdog, a participator in dog trials, public displays of skill in marshaling sheep into pens.”

    Verbatim: VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIV No 3

  • “According to legend, the stone is cursed and guarded by a malevolent water-demon, or kelpie-type entity, who protects it savagely.”

    the black dog and the scottish play, indeed

  • “It's based on "Bridle" (Sirenia Digest #3, February 2006), which a few of you might remember, the kelpie story.”

    "...my words will turn to anger. Malevolence in need..."

  • “In "Bridle," an equally unhappy woman begins to have unnerving dreams about a kelpie trapped in a small pond near her home.”

    Bonkus on the Konkus

  • “I still favour travelling behind a few hundred steers on a bike or horse with a faithful kelpie as a way to bust through to anywhere.”

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Gentlemen’s Club.

  • “It won't be long until my 14 year old kelpie needs an Emma.”

    back on the roundabout

  • “The dog in the story is not a gentle kelpie but a fearsome fighting hound, and he dies from battle wounds.”

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Love, loss and deadlines

  • “For more specific references, I'd gobble up anything if there's an all-exclusive fairy school YA book out there BOARDING SCHOOL SETTING IS PREFERABLY, BONUS IF IT'S ALL-FEMALES SCHOOL WITH RIVALRY NEXT TO A ALL-MALES BOARDING SCHOOL 8D or a kelpie story wherein said kelpie lives in your bathtub.”

    Triple Snapshots: YA Faerie Romance

  • “The long face "Happy Birthday, Patty" one looks to me very much like Brian Froud's illustration of a kelpie ... a kelpie being a shape-shifting water spirit that appears as horse and drowns those who try to ride it.”

    Why Beat a Dead Horse...

  • “The next day Jane is followed by a huge dog that looks like some sort of hellhound who takes her to a gnome and a kelpie.”

    Archive 2009-10-01

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equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘kelpie’

  1. kelpy

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. evil spirit
  1. sheepdog
  1. sheep dog
  1. shepherd dog

same context (22)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. brussel
  2. cabbage tree
  3. moulded
  4. narrow-leafed
  1. punkin
  2. flout
  3. stonewall
  4. Olympic-sized
  1. lissom
  2. wine-colored
  3. pear-tree
  4. place
  1. rosy-red
  2. pollard
  3. mas
  4. glass-shattering
  1. grass-green
  2. blue-rinsed
  3. heart-piercing
  4. leprechaun
  1. pixy
  2. belike

reverse dictionary (4)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. kelper
  1. water-kelpie
  1. kelpy
  1. nix

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. cvccvv
  1. mythical
  1. dog
  1. scots

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Comments

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  • chained_bear A mythical Scottish water spirit, but also an Australian breed of dog: "probably descended from the border collie and the dingo, this breed has been known since 1870," according to Simon & Schuster's Guide to Dogs, 1980. Feb 21, 2007

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‘kelpie’ has been looked up 2196 times, loved by 2 people, added to 32 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 12.