Definition of yarraman in English:
yarraman
nounPlural yarramen, Plural yarramans ˈjarəmən
Australian A horse.
I can hear a yarraman, I reckon
a mob of bush-bred yarramans
Example sentencesExamples
- She had only ever before known a hotly breathing, living yarraman, a yarraman that walked and cantered and neighed and shied and bucked.
- "Only got 'em one yarramen," said the blackfellow nonchalantly.
- "Yarraman!" Anne exclaimed, fully alive to the importance of the information. "Do you mean white man's yarraman, Kombo?
- He had probably ridden well clear, and then jumped off and let the 'yarramen' go.
- I popped Mr. Monkey on one of the sore-backed "Yarramans", and started for the station.
- Bujeri road, come out other side of mountain; plenty big for yarraman to come through.
- I asked the elder boy, whom I christened Tommy, if he would come along with me and the yarramans.
- Many a time he'd proposed that his own people should adopt the yarraman, explaining how much easier their lives would be if they allowed yarraman to help them as did the white men.
- Was it the white man's strange animal, the yarraman, whose flesh was poison?
- He needn't be frightened o' these yarramans. I got them like lambs.
Origin
Mid 19th century: probably from an Aboriginal language. The word was taken into the early Australian pidgin used by white settlers and Aborigines to communicate with each other; each believed that yarraman was the word for 'horse' in the other's language.