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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
marabou
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ That night she was perched on her stool wearing her cape trimmed with marabou over the dress.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Marabou

Marabou \Mar`a*bou"\ (m[a^]r"[.a]b[=oo]"), n. [F.]

  1. (Zo["o]l.) A large black-and-white carrion-eating stork of the genus Leptoptilos (formerly Ciconia), esp. the African species ( Leptoptilus crumeniferus syn. Leptoptilos crumenifer), whose downy under-wing feathers are used to trim garments; called also marabout. The Asiatic species ( Leptoptilos dubius, or Leptoptilos argala) is the adjutant. See Adjutant. [Written also marabu.]

  2. One having five eighths negro blood; the offspring of a mulatto and a griffe. [Louisiana]
    --Bartlett.

  3. A kind of thrown raw silk, nearly white naturally, but capable of being dyed without scouring; also, a thin fabric made from it, as for scarfs, which resembles the feathers of the marabou in delicacy, -- whence the name.

Wiktionary
marabou

n. 1 ''Leptoptilos crumeniferus'', a large wading bird native to Africa, with a naked head and neck adapted for scavenging. 2 (context dated US Louisiana English) A person, five-eighths of whose ancestry is black; the offspring of a mulatto and a griffe. 3 A kind of thrown raw silk, naturally nearly white, but capable of being dyed without scouring. 4 A thin fabric made from this silk, as for scarfs.

WordNet
marabou
  1. n. large African black-and-white carrion-eating stork; downy under-wing feathers are used to trim garments [syn: marabout, marabou stork, Leptoptilus crumeniferus]

  2. downy feathers of marabou storks used for trimming garments

Wikipedia
Marabou

Marabou can refer to:

  • Marabou (chocolate), a Swedish chocolate brand
  • Marabou (ethnicity), a historical term for a multiracial person in Haiti
  • Marabou (weed), or el marabú in Cuba, the legume Dichrostachys cinerea
  • Marabou stork, a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae
  • Marabou (fashion), downy feathers used as a fashion trimming. Historically known as "marabout."
  • Marabou, a collection of poems by Nikos Kavadias
  • Marabou, a thrown silk typically dyed in the gum or a fabric made of said silk
Marabou (chocolate)

Marabou is a Swedish chocolate brand, first launched in 1916.

Marabou (ethnicity)

Marabou is a term of Haitian origin denoting multiracial admixture. The term describes the offspring of a Haitian person of mixed race: Sub-Saharan Africans, Europeans, and South Asians ( East Indians) ancestry.

The Marabou label dates to the colonial period of Haiti’s history, meaning the offspring of a griffe and a black person. However, Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry, in his 3 volume work on the colony describes Marabous as the product of the union of a black and a quadroon, he says nothing concerning East Indians. The East Indian association with that term is probably due solely to the resemblance between dark-skinned Indians and marabous. Describing Marabous as an ethnic group is a stretch since the term applies to any person of mixed heritage with dark skin and straight or wavy hair. Marabous are no more an ethnic group than grimeaus, mulattoes, quadroons, or octoroons are; these terms merely describe the different phenotypes of mixed-race people.

Marabou (fashion)

Marabou (historically spelled marabout) describes a certain type of down feather trimming. Although it takes its name from the marabou stork whose undertail down provided the feathers, white turkey feathers have been used as a substitute. The advantage of marabou is that it takes dye well, making it a very versatile trimming for dress, and makes an effective substitute for fur. While marabou has been widely used as a fashion trimming since the late 19th century, it is also often used in fly tying for making up the lures ('flies') used for fly fishing.

Usage examples of "marabou".

Three months were necessary for cicatrization, but it was not until the capitulation of Marabou, at which place he was wounded, that the patient was returned to France.

The Dogbird began to lean with Cordavius and the Marabou, but the Flamingohawk, Shoebill and Limpkin remained adamant.

Farrell saw the marabou stork coming toward them, pacing softly, full of a carrion-eater's mincing exaltation.

Both Abe Abrahams, bursting with pride, his arm hooked through David's, and Dr Twenty-man-jones, tall and lugubrious as a marabou stork, were in the party around Centaine.

The storks strode knee-deep through the living carpet, marabous with horrific scaly heads, woolly-necked storks with scarves of fluffy white, saddle-bills with yellow medallions decorating" their long red and black beaks, all of them pecking hungrily at the living banquet.

Your shields will be red, your kilts the tails of the genet cat, your plumes the wing feathers of the marabou stork, and your headband the fur of the burrowing roole," Lobengula intoned, and then paused.