krait

krait

English

A krait

Alternative forms

• karait

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindi करैत (karait).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɹaɪt/

Noun

krait (plural kraits)

1. Any of several brightly-coloured, venomous snakes, of the genus Bungarus, of southeast Asia.
   • 1871 December, Dr. J. Ewart, “How the bite of snakes―supposed to be poisonous―may be cured”, in The Australian Medical Gazette:

     On visiting the General Hospital, on the morning of the 22nd of August, I was informed that one of the punkah coolies had been bitten about 8.30 p.m., the night before, by a krait, whose venom is virulently poisonous.

   • 2007, A. Philip Parham, Feeling Free‎, page 190]:

     Now, if you run into one of these kraits, you better NOT run away else you're a goner. It'll catch you for sure and you will die in your tracks.

   • 2009, Kate Jackson, Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo‎, page 295:

     Very much in my thoughts is Joe Slowinski, a herpetologist killed a few years earlier by a misidentified juvenile krait, a snake so small that he couldn't tell if the fang had punctured the skin.

   • 2011, Lisa Kemmerer, Animals and World Religions‎, page 71:

     India has a healthy share of poisonous snakes, including kraits, cobras, and two species of vipers, yet Hindu traditions are overwhelmingly snake-friendly.

Derived terms

• banded krait
• many-banded krait
• sea krait

Translations

snake

Bengali: কেউটে (keuţe) Finnish: krait French: bongare (fr) m Indonesian: please add this translation if you can Italian: bungaro m

Russian: крайт (ru) m (krajt) Spanish: búngaro m Telugu: కట్లపాము (te) (kaṭlapāmu) Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• IARTK, iktar, kirat, takir