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Taboo   /tæbˈu/   Listen
Taboo

noun
(Written also tabu)
1.
A prejudice (especially in Polynesia and other South Pacific islands) that prohibits the use or mention of something because of its sacred nature.  Synonym: tabu.
2.
An inhibition or ban resulting from social custom or emotional aversion.  Synonym: tabu.
adjective
(Written also tabu and tapu)
1.
Excluded from use or mention.  Synonyms: forbidden, out, prohibited, proscribed, tabu, verboten.  "In our house dancing and playing cards were out" , "A taboo subject"
2.
Forbidden to profane use especially in South Pacific islands.  Synonym: tabu.
verb
(past & past part. tabooed; pres. part. tabooing)  (Written also tabu)
1.
Declare as sacred and forbidden.





WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


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"Taboo" Quotes from Famous Books



... tour of America with a concert in a department store. When Nietszche was the talk of Germany we got "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Oscar Wilde's play, too unsavory for the France for which it was written, taboo in England because of its subject, has been joyously acclaimed in Germany, where there are many men who are theoretically licentious and practically uxorious; and Strauss was willing that his countrymen should sup to their full of ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... managed an appearance of composure but in truth she was badly shaken. Money matters was just about the one real taboo that she respected and to break over this habitual reticence even with an old friend like Wallace troubled her delicacy. The notion she got from the look in his face that there was something dubious about her father's solvency, was terrifying. She hid her hands under the table ...
— Mary Wollaston • Henry Kitchell Webster
... with his pocket-handkerchief, and fairly striking out from time to time with both arms, as if he were swimming under superhuman difficulties. 'I will lead this life no longer. I am a wretched being, cut off from everything that makes life tolerable. I have been under a Taboo in that infernal scoundrel's service. Give me back my wife, give me back my family, substitute Micawber for the petty wretch who walks about in the boots at present on my feet, and call upon me to swallow a sword tomorrow, and I'll do it. ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens
... Two, three hours the play went on, by which time all Dawson knew that a big game was running and that a girl was in the dealer's chair. Few of the visitors got close enough to verify the intelligence without receiving a sotto voce warning that rough talk was taboo—Miller's ungodly clan saw to that—and on the whole the warning was respected. Only once was it disregarded; then a heavy loser breathed a thoughtless oath. Disapproval was marked, punishment was condign; the lookout leisurely descended from his eyrie and floored the offender ...
— The Winds of Chance • Rex Beach
... job?" repeated the captain to one of the members, "I would but the devil take it, how can a man go around asking for a job in a dress suit? And I'm so rotten big that none of my friends can loan me a suit. And my credit is gone with at least twelve different tailors. I'm sort o' taboo as a borrower. Barry, old top, if you will chase the blighter after another highball, I'll drink your ...
— A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago • Ben Hecht


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