From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishjackaljack‧al /ˈdʒækɔːl, -kəl $ -kəl/ noun [countable] HBAa wild animal like a dog that lives in Asia and Africa and eats the remaining parts of dead animals
Examples from the Corpus
jackal• Careful historians, incidentally, warn us that it could not be a fox, but must have been a jackal.• Gustave washed his face in a canvas pail; a jackal howled; he smoked a pipe.• And Urien follows him still, brother jackals, playing at being lions.• Relieved to have grass underfoot silencing his blithe escape, Laverne glances back with all the charm of a lowly jackal.• the jackals of Wall Street• The jackal as Anubis presided over mummification and was lord and protector of cemeteries.Origin jackal (1600-1700) Turkish çakal, from Persian shagal, from Sanskrit srgala 