karait

plural karaits

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of krait.

   At the end of an hour he died, as they die who are bitten by the little brown karait, and the policemen bore him and the thing under the tablecloth to their appointed places.

   1891, Rudyard Kipling, The Return of Imray

plural Karaits

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of Karaite (“adherent of Karaism”).

   If the virtue of the Karaits lay in something else than their marriage laws, it is nothing to the purpose on this question; and if in those laws, it must be granted that none except the Roman Catholics ever surpassed their virtue or came nigh to it.

   1843, William Marshall, An Inquiry Concerning the Lawfulness of Marriage Between Parties Previously Related by Consanguinity Or Affinity

   2 more examples

   When the Jewish Church was settled in Judea, after the Babylonian captivity, there were two sorts of men among the members of it; the one was called Zaddikim, or the Righteous, who contented themselves with what was written in the law of Moses only. From these were derived the sects of the Samaritans, Sadducees, and Karaits.

   1808, Elizabeth Carter, “Notes on the Bible, &c.”, in Memoirs of the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, page 274

   This was the interpretation put upon the text, by the Talmudical Rabbies and the Scribes, which last are stated by Chief Justice Vaughan to have been of more authority in the Hebrew Commonwealth than the Karait Rabbies, who adopted a different interpretation; […]

   1840, H. R. Reynolds, Considerations on the state of the law regarding Marriages with a Deceased Wife's Sister

plural Karaits

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of Kerait (“member of a particular Turco-Mongol tribal confederation”).

   His name was Aong Khan, and his people the Karait and Makrit, who were also Christians, though their Lord became an idolater.

   1875, Dr. H. W. Bellew, The history of Káshgharia, page 25

   2 more examples

   However it does not appear that the Turks were ever Masters of more than one half of Grand Tatary; for in the Time of Cavar Chan of Turkestan, mentioned often in the foregoing History, who extended his Dominion over Little Bucharia, or Cashgar, we find several Nations in the East, as those of the Mogulls, Naimans, Karaïts, &c. who had their particular Chans, among which that of the Karaïts was the most powerful; […]

   1729, A General History of the Turks, Moguls, and Tatars, Vulgarly Called Tartars

   Geographers and historians have been sadly puzzled where to find its site; and some, as Malte Brun, have supposed it to have been merely a summer abode of the Karait and Mongolian Khans, like that of Zheholl, where the emperor or khan long received the British embassy.

   1831, James Bell, A System of Geography, Popular and Scientific