bomas

Noun

boma (countable and uncountable, plural bomas)

1. (Africa, East) An enclosure usually made of thorn bushes, and latterly of steel fencing, for protection from marauders.
   • It was after midnight when Tarzan, with his slow-moving caravan, approached the spot where the elephants lay. Long before they reached it they had been guided by the huge fire the natives had built in the center of a hastily improvised boma, partially for warmth and partially to keep off chance...1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 137
2. (Africa, East) A stockade made of bushes and thorns.
   • the area has three main groups. The Wamasi and Waarushaare still settled on the boma system where the clan settle in one cluster called a boma comprised of several houses enclosed in a fence leaving the centre open for keeping livestock.2003, Harold Brookfield, Helen Parsons, Muriel Brookfield, Agrodiversity, United Nations University Press, page 108
3. (Africa, East) A hide.
   • You try to arrange the scene so the moonlight will be on the bait with a clear background against which the lion will show up. You pile as much fresh brush as you can on your thicket or boma, as the hiding place is called, for the lion can see as well by day as by night.1922, Mary Hastings Bradley, On the Gorilla trail, quoted in Mary Zeiss Strange (editor), Heart Shots: Women write about hunting, Stackpole Books, page 182
4. (Africa, East) A hut.
   • The exotic beauty of our Masaailand is a marvel to our creator, she thought as she stepped back into her boma, a typical Masaai hut built with grass, dry sticks and twigs and covered with cow dung for insulation.2004, Jacyee Aniagolu-Johnson, Mikela, iUniverse, page 3
5. (Africa, East) A military or police post or magistracy.
   • GWEMBE district police officer-in-charge Adams Gondwe has appealed to Government to put up a police post in Muyumbwe boma to replace one that was washed away by floods last year.5 February 2004, Zambia: Muyumbwe Boma Needs Police Post (allAfrica.com)
6. (Africa, East) A type of fertilizer rich in animal dung.
   • The cattle are usually corralled overnight which enables farmers to collect farmyard or boma manure.Soil fertility regeneration in Kenya (PDF)

See all 9 meanings of boma