donga

plural dongas

1. South AfricaA usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.

   Count yourself lucky not to be a prisoner in the car at this moment, speeding away, or at the bottom of a donga with a bullet in your head.

   1999, JM Coetzee, Disgrace, Vintage, published 2000, page 98

   3 more examples

   Major Pack-Beresford and other officers were shot down, and every unhorsed man remained necessarily as a prisoner under the very muzzles of the riflemen in the donga.

   1900, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Halt at Bloemfontein”, in The Great Boer War, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 349

   There were trenches for us men, but no place of safety for our horses nearer than this long and narrow donga which ran from within our lines towards those of the Boers.

   1901, Ernest William Hornung, “The Knees of the Gods”, in Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman, Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 284

   Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas.

   1948, Henry Vollam Morton, In Search of South Africa, Methuen, page 168

   Synonyms: arroyo, wadi, wash

plural dongas

1. AustraliaA transportable building providing accommodation for one person, often used on remote work sites or as tourist accommodation.

   2009, David Marr, The Ibdian Ocean Solution, Robyn Davidson (editor), The Best Australian Essays 2009, page 118, Workers building roads in the bush sleep in dongas like these and are well paid for their discomfort.

   2 more examples

   Menzies Hotel ([Ph] 9024 2043; 22 Shenton St; s/d $48/65, donga $75) has old-style hotel rooms as well as - for that real goldfields experience - dongas (temporary miner′s abode, usually made from corrugated iron), and also serves all meals.

   2004, Susie Ashworth, Rebecca Turner, Simone Egger, Western Australia, Lonely Planet, page 152

   He not only expects his fence to be perfect, he also expects his dongas to be the best workman′s huts in Australia, and that is what they are.

   2004, James Woodford, The Dog Fence, page 225

plural dongas

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of donger (“penis”).