marabou

[ mar-uh-boo ]

noun

1. any of three large storks of the genus Leptoptilus, of Africa or the East Indies, having soft, downy feathers under the wings and tail that are used for making a furlike trimming for women's hats and garments.
2. one of the feathers.
3. the trimming or material made of the feathers.
4. thrown silk that can be dyed without being scoured.

marabou

/ ˈmærəˌbuː /

noun

1. See adjutant bird
   a large black-and-white African carrion-eating stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferus, with a very short naked neck and a straight heavy bill See also adjutant bird
2. a down feather of this bird, used to trim garments
3. 1. a fine white raw silk
   2. fabric made of this

Word History and Origins

Origin of marabou¹

1815–25; < French marabout literally, marabout

Word History and Origins

Origin of marabou¹

C19: from French, from Arabic murābit marabout , so called because the stork is considered a holy bird in Islam

Example Sentences

Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs exhibition opens in Paris with cocktails and marabou.

From The Daily Beast

A silky trench coat in a watercolor print, trimmed in turquoise marabou would have been at home at a Manhattan cocktail party.

From The Daily Beast

A common white stork hasn't half the solid gravity of an adjutant or a marabou.

From Project Gutenberg

This being the case, there is a proverb about cleanliness that makes one wonder why the marabou stork doesn't wash himself.

From Project Gutenberg

Her little thin fingers were stiff with rings, as though set in brilliants; and she held a white marabou fan in her hand.

From Project Gutenberg

Clouds hovered over us, delicate and fleecy as the feathers of the marabou, and white and curly as the feathers of the ostrich.

From Project Gutenberg

After leaving the vley where the marabou were, we rode on and on across the shadeless, waterless, sun-baked plain.

From Project Gutenberg