plural coffles
: a group of prisoners, enslaved people, or animals chained or tied together in a line
The African raiders marched their captives to the coast in long lines known as coffles: dozens of people yoked together by the neck with leather thongs to prevent escape.—
Alan Taylor
Alan TaylorBoth women … were shackled at the hands and feet and led into Criminal District Court in a coffle of accused criminals.—Jarvis DeBerry
Jarvis DeBerry… returned to Massawa, whence he set off with a coffle of camels …—Russell Warren Howe
Russell Warren HoweExamples of coffle in a Sentence
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Jefferson’s great-grandson, William Stuart Bankhead, sent the Scott family and others into the Deep South, far from the places where they and their parents and grandparents had been born, in a coffle in 1846.
—Andrew M. Davenport, Smithsonian, 14 June 2018
These immigrants followed African slaves brought there in coffles, waves of Chinese workers recruited for cane fields, and Vietnamese refugees who came after the war and became fisher folk on the Gulf.
—Casey Cep, New Republic, 26 May 2017
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Andrew M. Davenport, Smithsonian, 14 June 2018
These immigrants followed African slaves brought there in coffles, waves of Chinese workers recruited for cane fields, and Vietnamese refugees who came after the war and became fisher folk on the Gulf.
—Casey Cep, New Republic, 26 May 2017
Cite this Entry
“Coffle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coffle. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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