MUMBO JUMBO • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mumbo jumbo

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/mˈəmboʊ dʒˈəmboʊ/ Listen

noun

Mumbo Jumbo n.

Among the Mandingos of the western Sudan, a bugbear by means of which the women are terrified and disciplined by societies of the men, one of whom assumes a masquerade for the purpose; hence, loosely, any Negro idol, fetish, or bugaboo. "The miserable Mumbo Jumbo they paraded."

An object of superstitious homage and fear.

Incomprehensible or senseless language, usually intended to avoid answering plainly, confuse a listener, or obscure an issue.

Language so arcane or obscure as to be unintelligible to the listener.

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Etymology of 'Mumbo jumbo'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mumbo jumbo" Quotes from Famous Books

... someone may have lived here, and we sometimes think that someone must. The cocoa palms grow all round the island, which is scarce like nature's planting. We found besides, when we landed, an unmistakable cairn upon the beach; use unknown; but probably erected in the hope of gratifying some mumbo jumbo whose very name is forgotten, by some thick-witted gentry whose very bones are lost. Then the island (witness the Directory) has been twice reported; and since my tenancy, we have had two wrecks, both ...

— The Ebb-Tide - A Trio And Quartette • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... admiration for the gods, that Power in whose chapels the old major was a faithful worshiper must have looked upward approvingly upon the constancy of Pendennis's martyrdom. There are sufferers in that cause as in the other; the negroes in the service of Mumbo Jumbo tattoo and drill themselves with burning skewers with great fortitude; and we read that the priests in the service of Baal gashed themselves and bled freely. You who can smash the idols, do so with a good courage; but do not be too fierce with the idolaters—they ...

— The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2 - His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy • William Makepeace Thackeray