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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cowries

Cowrie \Cow"rie\ Cowry \Cow"ry\(kou"r[y^]), n.; pl. Cowries (-r[i^]z). [Hind. kaur[imac].] (Zo["o]l.) A marine shell of the genus Cypr[ae]a.

Note: There are numerous species, many of them ornamental. Formerly Cypr[ae]a moneta and several other species were largely used as money in Africa and some other countries, and they are still so used to some extent. The value is always trifling, and varies at different places.

Wiktionary
cowries

n. (plural of cowrie English)

Usage examples of "cowries".

Perhaps, therefore, instead of eighty, we should read eight hundred cowries to the saggio, which would still leave a profit of cent.

I want the complete range of your local cowries and I want this fish we're after.

I want the complete range of your local cowries and I want this fish were after.

I want the complete range of your local cowries and I want this fish we’re after.

On their arrival the pagazis are paid by the dealers according to contract, which is generally either by about twenty yards of the cotton stuff known as merikani, or by a little powder, by a handful or two of cowries, by some beads, or if all these be scarce, they are paid by being allotted some of the slaves who are otherwise unsalable.

The ladies not unfrequently wore girdles of beads attached to green skirts embroidered with silk and ornamented with bits of glass or cowries, or sometimes the skirts were made of the grass cloth called lambda, which, in blue, yellow, or black, is so much valued by the people of Zanzibar.

Yoke picked out a big whelk, two brown cowries, and two tooth cowries.