bult, noun

/bəlt/
Forms:
Also bilt.
Plurals:
bults; formerly bulten.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, hump.
A low ridge or sandy hillock. See also randjie.
Note:
‘Bult’ occurs as an element in place names, as Bultfontein, Doringbult, Van Heerden’s Bult.
1852 C. Barter Dorp & Veld 96They (sc. the lions) retreated slowly up the bult.
1864 T. Baines Explor. in S.-W. Afr. 371We crossed the seringa bult at a narrower place.
1900 A.W. Carter Informant, Ladybrand 8 Feb.We slipped along until I thought we were safe enough behind a bult, cut the wire and drove across the veldt to Pohl’s farm.
1902 D. Van Warmelo On Commando 147Against the sides of the mounds (bulten) the cattle were moving in black dense masses.
1928 E.H.L. Schwarz Kalahari & its Native Races 31Behind the marsh fringing the stream on the south side, there now appeared a low bult, some twenty-five feet high.
1936 C. Birkby Thirstland Treks 91No vice that a highway can have is lacking in the road...It twisted and turned, it laboured over bults, it lost itself in the wilderness on either side.
1941 A.G. Bee Kalahari Camp Fires (1943) 56Poultney and Drake took their horses again and rode out towards a big ‘sand bult’ or sand-dune covered with fine trees.
1951 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Bekkersdal Marathon (1971) 151How do you know that the line you marked out on the other side of the bult is in a straight line from here? Can you see through a bult — a bult about fifty paces high and half a mile over it?
1987 M. Poland Train to Doringbult 9The light, just rising cobra-coloured up above the bult, was fading out to green, to white. Still the ridge was dark.
A low ridge or sandy hillock.
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Afrikaans
bully, nounn.bundu, nounn.
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