Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name used originally in Australia to denote a wild or unbroken horse and adopted in other English colonies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Australia A wild or feral horse.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown; perhaps from James Brumby, early Australian farrier, who is said to have left horses at his abandoned property.

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Examples

  • If a man wants your money, he ought to ask for it, or send round a subscription-list, instead of juggling about the country, with an Australian larrikin; a "brumby," with as much breed as the boy; a brace of chumars in gold-laced caps; three or four ekka-ponies with hogged manes, and a switch-tailed demirep of a mare called Arab because she has a kink in her flag.

    Indian Tales Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • People who lost money on him called him a "brumby;" but if ever any horse had Harpoon's shoulders and The Gin's temper, Shackles was that horse.

    Plain Tales from the Hills Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • People who lost money on him called him a "brumby"; but if ever any horse had Harpoon's shoulders and The Gin's temper, Shackles was that horse.

    Indian Tales Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • Nearly every week I would ride into Coolgardie for stores, and walk out again leading the loaded packhorse, our faithful little chestnut "brumby," i.e., half-wild pony, of which there are large herds running in the bush near the settled parts of the coast.

    Spinifex and Sand David Wynford Carnegie 1885

  • a "brumby," with as much breed as the boy; a brace of chumars in gold-laced caps; three or four ekka-ponies with hogged manes, and a switch-tailed demirep of a mare called Arab because she has a kink in her flag.

    Plain Tales from the Hills Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • All agreed that "you couldn't beat cold boiled duck by much"; but in the morning grilled fish was accepted as "just the thing for breakfast"; then finding ourselves face to face with Lot's wife, and not too much of that, we beat a hasty retreat to the homestead; a further opportune "catch" of duck giving us heart for further brumby encounters and another night's camp out-bush.

    We of the Never-Never Jeannie Gunn 1915

  • As a matter of course, we left the servant problem to work out its own solution, and, also as a matter of course, the Sanguine Scot was full of plans for the future but particularly bubbling over with the news that he had secured Tam-o'-Shanter for a partner in the brumby venture.

    We of the Never-Never Jeannie Gunn 1915

  • Mac built castles, and made calculations, Tam put his shoulder to the drudgery, and before Mac quite knew what had happened, he was hauling logs and laying foundations for a brumby trap in the south-east country, while Bertie's Nellie found herself obliged to divide her attention between the homestead and the brumby camp.

    We of the Never-Never Jeannie Gunn 1915

  • Brumby horses being one of the problems of the run, and the destruction of brumby stallions imperative, as the nigger-hunt was apparently off, the brumby mob proved too enticing to be passed by, and for an hour and more it kept us busy, the Maluka and Dan being equally "set on getting a stallion or two."

    We of the Never-Never Jeannie Gunn 1915

  • "Lot's wife," we moved on again, past the glory of the lagoons, to further brumby encounters, carrying a water-bag on a pack-horse by way of precaution against further "drouths."

    We of the Never-Never Jeannie Gunn 1915

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