sb. (and a.) Austral. Also 9 warragal. [An aboriginal word, spelt warregal, wor-re-gal, war-ri-gal, wor-rikul, wa-ri-kul, etc. by various writers on the Australian language; said to have the senses ‘dog’ and ‘savage’ (sb. and adj.). In the former sense it is freq. quoted as a native word from 1793 onwards; the sense ‘savage’ is given by Bunce, Lang. Aborigines Victoria, 1851, 38.]
A. sb.
1. The wild dog of Australia, the DINGO.
1852. [see DINGO].
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Squatter’s Dream, xix. 240. A warrigal will be picking some of your bones before this day six months.
1897. Kipling, Seven Seas, Song of Dead, 4. Where the warrigal whimpers and bays through the dust of the sere river-courses.
2. A wild Australian aboriginal.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xvii. I swore to shoot the old warrigal at sight.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 Aug., 4/2. A ‘warrigal’ originally meant a wild Blackfellow.
transf. 1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 Aug., 4/2. By an easy and natural transition, ‘warrigal’ has now come to signify a hot-blooded youth who goes the pace and makes things hum when he gets out of his teens.
3. A wild or untamed Australian horse.
1881. Australasian, 21 May, 647/4 (Morris). How we ran in ‘The Black Warragal.’
1890. Melbourne Argus, 14 June, 4/2. Mike, he’d fret himself to death in a stable and maybe kill the groom. Mike’s a warrigal, he is.
B. adj. Wild.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, viii. A real good wholesome cabbage—warrigal cabbage, the shepherds call it. Ibid., Squatter’s Dream, xx. 249. He’s a good shot and these warrigal devils knows it.
