Taboo
[tə'buː] or [tə'bu]
Definition
(noun.) an inhibition or ban resulting from social custom or emotional aversion.
(noun.) a prejudice (especially in Polynesia and other South Pacific islands) that prohibits the use or mention of something because of its sacred nature.
(verb.) declare as sacred and forbidden.
(adj.) forbidden to profane use especially in South Pacific islands .
Typist: Morton--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) 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.
(v. t.) 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.
Editor: Stanton
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Interdict, prohibition.
v. a. Interdict, forbid, prohibit, put under taboo, put under an interdict, forbid to be used or touched.
Inputed by Carmela
Definition
n. an institution among the Polynesians forming a penal system based on religious sanctions by which certain things are held sacred or consecrated and hence prohibited to be used—by a natural transference of meaning by association of ideas becoming equivalent to 'unholy ' 'accursed'—also Tamboo′ Tambu′ and Tapu′: any prohibition interdict restraint ban exclusion ostracism.—v.t. to forbid approach to: to forbid the use of:—pr.p. tabōō′ing; pa.t. and pa.p. tabōōed′.
Checker: Roberta
Examples
- When the mass of men emerged from slavish obedience and made democracy inevitable, the taboo entered upon its final illness. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- For reasons worth analyzing later, these representative American citizens desired both the immediate taboo and an ultimate annihilation of vice. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- As soon as government begins to supply services, it is turning away from the sterile tyranny of the taboo. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- For if ownership is a human need, we certainly cannot taboo it as the extreme communists so dogmatically urge. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Far better we may say that moral and social problems be left to private solution than that they be subjected to the clumsy method of the taboo. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The policeman with his taboo did make moral and social questions insusceptible to treatment in party platforms. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- If by some magic every taboo of the commission could be enforced the abolition of sex slavery would not have come one step nearer to reality. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- You cannot beat the bosses with the reformer's taboo. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Its only method was to forbid, to prosecute, to jail--in short, to use the taboo. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The routineer with his taboo does not see this, so he attempts the impossible task of obliterating the impulse. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- But if the problem is more heavily charged with power, the taboo irritates the force until it explodes. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The routineer in a panic turns to the taboo. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Possibly they were somewhat disillusioned about the present instruments of the taboo; perhaps they imagined that a new broom would sweep clean. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- If it is, then the taboo enforced by a Morals Police is, perhaps, as good a way as any of gaining a fictitious sense of activity. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Without it there would to-day be no demand for a creative statesmanship which turns its back upon the routine and the taboo, kings and idols, and non-human purposes. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Anyone who has had the smallest experience of municipal politics knows that the corruption of the police is directly proportionate to the severity of the taboos it is asked to enforce. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The aroused public opinion which the Commission asks for cannot be held if all it has to fix upon is an elaborate series of taboos. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- There would be no more empty taboos, no erecting of institutions upon abstract and mechanical analogies. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Nothing dynamic holds the recommendations together--the mass of them are taboos, an attempt to kill each mosquito and ignore the marsh. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- On all sides of them is a mass of taboos. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It bowed to the prevailing conscience when it proposed taboos instead of radical changes. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The old routines and the old taboos are breaking up anyway, social forces are emerging which seek autonomy and struggle against slavery to non-human purposes. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The same people who with daily insistence say that innovators ignore facts are in the absurd predicament of trying to still human wants with petty taboos. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Note how vague and general are the chance constructive suggestions; how precise and definite the taboos. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Edited by Kelsey