Kelpie

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.

    "He was a boy in form, and an antediluvian in feature. Some thought he was a mule, between a Jew and an ape; some a wizard, some a kelpie, or a fairy, but most of all, that he was really and truly a Brownie."

  2. 2
    an Australian sheepdog with pointed ears wordnet
  3. 3
    An Australian breed of sheepdog.

    "There was no sound but the endless noise of forest and river, and the sleep-whimper of his kelpie."

  4. 4
    (Scottish folklore) water spirit in the form of a horse that likes to drown its riders wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
davydavy jonesdeityfresh-water nymphgodgoddess

Example

More examples

"The Kelpie, an Australian sheep dog, is an excellent working dog and can muster large numbers of sheep with little or no command guidance."

Etymology

Possibly from Scottish Gaelic cailpeach or colpach, meaning "colt". The dog breed derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup), which in turn derives from the mythological spirit.

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