Meanings
bozal1
plural bozals
- alternativeuncommonAlternative form of bosal (“noseband on a horse”).
The more tightly these nosebands are attached, the more the horse is likely to raise his head and nose. For ordinary pleasure riding, attach this equipment to allow one or two fingers sideways between the bozal and the underside of the jaw.
2005, Lee Ziegler, Easy-Gaited Horses: Gentle, humane methods for training and riding gaited pleasure horses, Storey Publishing, →ISBN, page 54
Bozal2
- not comparableAlternative letter-case form of bozal.
They were libelled for salvage by the officers who took them up, and libelled as property by the miscreants called Spanish gentlemen who had bought them in Cuba, knowing them to be Bozal negroes fresh from Africa.
1843, J. F. Johnson, Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Convention, page 1221 more example
I was assured that the labour of eight emancipated Africans was considered equal to that of twelve apprenticed labourers born in the colony; and on the same principle, a Bozal African, fresh from one of the market places of the Havana, commands an average price of twenty-four ounces of gold when sold by retail
1840, David Turnbull, Travles in the West: Cuba; with Notices of Porto Rico, and the Slave Trade, pages 62–63
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Spanishbozal“recently-imported slave; noseband”
- Englishbozal
From Spanish bozal (“recently-imported slave; noseband”). Doublet of bossale and bosal.
More words from Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with bozal
Anagrams
Cite this entry
bozal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bozal
“bozal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bozal. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bozal,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bozal.
Source: bozal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.