koomkie
/ˈkuːmki/
koomkie noun: a tame female elephant used as a decoy in the capture of wild male elephants.
Noun
koomkie (plural koomkies)
- A tame female elephant used as a decoy in the capture of wild male elephants.
- When an elephant is in a proper state to be removed from the keddah, he is conducted either by koomkies or by tame males.1807, Thomas Williamson, Oriental Field Sports
- Though on some occasions the mahouts accompany the koomkies up to the saun, yet it is safer, and generally the most sure and easy mode, for them to dismount in some contiguous cover with their blankets and ropes, leading the koomkies to the saun, towards which they proceed in the most cunning style.1810, “Decoy Elephants Catching a Male”, in Enos Bronson, editor, Select Reviews of Literature, and Spirit of Foreign Magazines, volume 3, page 123
Examples of koomkie in a sentence
- The drivers remain concealed at a little distance, while the koomkies surround the goondah, as this sort of elephant is called.1834, Frederic Shoberl, Natural History of Quadrupeds, volume 1, page 213:
- The hunters rode out on their koomkies, supplied with ropes, and other apparatus, for securing their captives.1881, Edmund Routledge, Routledge's Every Boy's Annual, page 486:
- With the aid of koomkies, the captives were driven in batches of three or four into a circular stockade […]1957, The National Geographic Magazine, volume 112, page 505:
Forms of koomkie
| plural | koomkies |
|---|---|
| alternative form | coomkee |
| alternative form | coonkie |
| alternative form | khoonkie |
| alternative form | koomkee |
| alternative form | koonkie |
Origin of koomkie
Borrowed from Bengali কুমকি (kumki), from Classical Persian کمک (kumak).
Questions about koomkie
- What does koomkie mean?
- Koomkie means a tame female elephant used as a decoy in the capture of wild male elephants.
- How do you use koomkie in a sentence?
- The drivers remain concealed at a little distance, while the koomkies surround the goondah, as this sort of elephant is called.
- What part of speech is koomkie?
- Koomkie is a noun.
- How do you pronounce koomkie?
- Koomkie is pronounced /ˈkuːmki/ (US).
- What is the plural of koomkie?
- The plural of koomkie is koomkies.
Words near koomkie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: koomkie (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-koomkie.oga.
Cite this entry: “koomkie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/koomkie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.