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limbo - 9 dictionary results

lim⋅bo

1  [lim-boh]
Use limbo in a Sentence
–noun, plural -bos.
1. (often initial capital letter) Roman Catholic Theology. a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants (limbo of infants) and of the righteous who died before the coming of Christ (limbo of the fathers or limbo of the patriarchs).
2. a place or state of oblivion to which persons or things are regarded as being relegated when cast aside, forgotten, past, or out of date: My youthful hopes are in the limbo of lost dreams.
3. an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.
4. a place or state of imprisonment or confinement.
Origin:
1300–50; ME, from ML phrase in limbō on hell's border (L: on the edge), equiv. to in on + limbō, abl. of limbus edge, border (L), place bordering on hell (ML); see limbus 1

lim⋅bo

2  [lim-boh]
–noun, plural -bos.
a dance from the West Indies, originally for men only, in which the dancer bends backward from the knees and moves with a shuffling step under a horizontal bar that is lowered after each successive pass.
Origin:
1955–60; cf. Jamaican E limba to bend, easily bending; see limber 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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lim·bo 1   (lĭm'bō)   
n.   pl. lim·bos
  1. often Limbo Roman Catholic Church The abode of unbaptized but innocent or righteous souls, as those of infants or virtuous individuals who lived before the coming of Christ.
  2. A region or condition of oblivion or neglect: Management kept her promotion in limbo for months.
  3. A state or place of confinement.
  4. An intermediate place or state.

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin (in) limbō, (in) Limbo, ablative of limbus, Limbo, from Latin, border.]
Word History: Our use of the word limbo to refer to states of oblivion, confinement, or transition is derived from the theological sense of Limbo as a place where souls remain that cannot enter heaven, for example, unbaptized infants. Limbo in Roman Catholic theology is located on the border of Hell, which explains the name chosen for it. The Latin word limbus, having meanings such as "an ornamental border to a fringe" and "a band or girdle," was chosen by Christian theologians of the Middle Ages to denote this border region. English borrowed the word limbus directly, but the form that caught on in English, limbo, first recorded in a work composed around 1378, is from the ablative form of limbus, the form that would be used in expressions such as in limbō, "in Limbo."
lim·bo 2   (lĭm'bō)   
n.   pl. lim·bos
A West Indian dance in which the dancers keep bending over backward and passing under a pole that is lowered slightly each time.

[Probably ultimately of African origin.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Limbo

Lim"bo\ (l[i^]m"b[-o]), Limbus \Lim"bus\ (-b[u^]s), n. [L. limbus border, edge, in limbo on the border. Cf. Limb border.]

1. (Scholastic Theol.) An extramundane region where certain classes of souls were supposed to await the judgment.

As far from help as Limbo is from bliss. --Shak.

A Limbo large and broad, since called The Paradise of fools. --Milton.

Note: The limbus patrum was considered as a place for the souls of good men who lived before the coming of our Savior. The limbus infantium was said to be a similar place for the souls of unbaptized infants. To these was added, in the popular belief, the limbus fatuorum, or fool's paradise, regarded as a receptacle of all vanity and nonsense.

2. Hence: Any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement; a prison; as, to put a man in limbo.

3. (Anat.) A border or margin; as, the limbus of the cornea.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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limbo

In the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the afterlife, the condition of innocent persons who die without benefit of baptism; those in limbo do not suffer damnation, but they do not enjoy the presence of God. Limbo means “a bordering place.”

Note: Figuratively, “limbo” is a state of nonresolution or uncertainty: “Until he receives notice of his new posting, he'll be in limbo.”
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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limbo  (1)
"region supposed to exist on the border of Hell" reserved for pre-Christian saints (Limbus patrum) and unbaptized infants (Limbus infantum);" c.1300, from L. (in) limbo "(on) the edge," abl. of limbus "edge, border" (see limb (2)). Figurative sense of "condition of neglect or oblivion" is from 1642.

limbo  (2)
dance in which the dancer bends backward and passes under a bar, 1956, of W.Indian origin, probably an alteration of limber.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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limbo

see in limbo.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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