Carabao

//kæɹəˈbeɪəʊ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A domesticated subspecies of water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis carabanesis.

    "The weaker carabaos are slaughtered for meat, the stronger ones put to work on Golgotha, and the drivers are assimilated into the workforce."

  2. 2
    water buffalo of the Philippines wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
animalantelopearmadillobatbeefbison

Example

More examples

"The farmer in the Philippines relies on his carabao to plow the rice fields."

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish carabao, from Waray-Waray karabaw, from Malay kerbau, from Proto-Malayic *kAr(ə)baw, ultimately from Proto-Mon-Khmer *krpiʔ ~ *krpiiw ~ *krpuʔ ~ *(kr)puh (“buffalo”). Compare Khmer ក្របី (krɑɑbəy), Halang kơpùa, Indonesian kerbau, Javanese ꦏꦼꦧꦺꦴ (kebo), Thai กระบือ (grà-bʉʉ).

Related phrases

water buffalo

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.