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limbo

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Limbo is defined as a state where you uncertainly await something important, such as a decision about your future or, in some Christian religions, a place where babies go after they die if they have not been baptized.

(noun)

An example of limbo is when you wait to find out if you got a new job that will require you to move.
An example of limbo is where the Christians believe a baby goes if he has not been baptized.

The definition of limbo is a dance where you have to duck lower and lower to get underneath a pole without touching the pole or the ground.

(noun)

An example of limbo is a competition dance you do at a cook-out where you take turns wiggling your way under a pole as the pole is held closer and closer to the ground.

To limbo means to do a dance where you have to duck and bend to get under a pole without touching the pole or the ground.

(verb)

An example of limbo is ducking and bending your way underneath a pole without putting your hands on the ground.

See limbo in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun pl. limbos

in some Christian theologies, the eternal abode or state, neither heaven nor hell, of the souls of infants or others dying in original sin but free of grievous personal sin, or, before the coming of Christ, the temporary abode or state of all holy souls after death
any intermediate, indeterminate state
a place or condition of confinement, neglect, or oblivion

Origin: ME < L, abl. of limbus, edge, border (in in limbo, in or on the border) < IE *(s)lemb-, to hand down: see limp

noun pl. limbos

a dance, originated in the West Indies, in which the dancers bend from the knees as far back as possible to pass beneath a bar that is put lower and lower

Origin: prob. altered < limber

See limbo in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun pl. lim·bos

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.
A region or condition of oblivion or neglect: Management kept her promotion in limbo for months.
A state or place of confinement.
An intermediate place or state.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English

Origin: , from Medieval Latin (in) limbō, (in) Limbo

Origin: , ablative of limbus, Limbo

Origin: , 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.”

noun 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.

Origin:

Origin: Probably ultimately of African origin

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