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Tabu   Listen
noun
Taboo  n.  (Written also tabu)  A total prohibition of intercourse with, use of, or approach to, a given person or thing under pain of death, an interdict of religious origin and authority, formerly common in the islands of Polynesia; interdiction.


Tabu  n., v.  See Taboo.


adjective
Taboo  adj.  (Written also tabu and tapu)  Set apart or sacred by religious custom among certain races of Polynesia, New Zealand, etc., and forbidden to certain persons or uses; hence, prohibited under severe penalties; interdicted; as, food, places, words, customs, etc., may be taboo.


verb
Taboo  v. t.  (past & past part. tabooed; pres. part. tabooing)  (Written also tabu)  To put under taboo; to forbid, or to forbid the use of; to interdict approach to, or use of; as, to taboo the ground set apart as a sanctuary for criminals.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Tabu" Quotes from Famous Books



... Parallels.—The tabu, as to a particular direction, occurs in other Indian stories as well as in European folk-tales (see notes on Stokes, p. 286). The grateful animals theme occurs in "The Soothsayer's Son" (infra, No. ...
— Indian Fairy Tales • Collected by Joseph Jacobs
... was placed under tabu, near the Morai, for the purpose of the observatory, and a camp under the command of King was established there. This camp was daily supplied with meat and vegetables, even more than could be consumed, and several canoe-loads were sent ...
— The Life of Captain James Cook • Arthur Kitson
... healthfully tired with the exercise and "go" of it all, and at least they stirred the pot. But whatever they said or did, suffragists and antis never, so to speak, "met". The subject, from some occult sense of decorum, was tabu. If an anti were setting forth her views when a suffragist entered the room she instantly ceased and began to talk about humidity or the Balkans. A suffragist would no more have marshalled her arguments for the overthrow of an equal than she would have corrected ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown
... superstitious about several things: If any one dies in the hogan it is henceforth "tabu." The body is burned and the building with it, and whatever fragments of poles, etc., withstand the fire are ...
— The Grand Canyon of Arizona: How to See It, • George Wharton James
... possibly being like the Olympus Station. I've often wondered why that particular location has been so difficult to operate. Sure, I know the accepted explanation, but I think we should learn why it works and how to break a tabu. If we don't, we might ...
— The Lani People • J. F. Bone
... compound they found, at last, the trail of his passing. They followed and it led to a stream and along the stream until they came to the tabu of the green pool, and ...
— Happy Ending • Fredric Brown


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