jungle fever
Americannoun
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Pathology. a severe variety of malarial fever occurring in the East Indies and the tropics.
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Slang: Sometimes Offensive. a person’s preference for a sexual or romantic relationship that is interracial, especially the preference of a white person for a Black partner.
noun
Etymology
Origin of jungle fever
First recorded in 1795–1805, and in 1960–65 jungle fever for def. 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Welsh, a Purple Heart recipient, was wounded twice and survived both malaria and a jungle fever in three island campaigns.
From Washington Times • Feb. 28, 2020
Once again, like a recurring jungle fever, Viet Nam forced itself to the front of the nation's consciousness.
From Time Magazine Archive
His second, picked up en route, died of jungle fever.
From Time Magazine Archive
This young man's hopeful career was early arrested by his love of science, for he died of jungle fever in Bengal, caught while in search of plants.
From Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville by Somerville, Mary
Always, by listening, he could hear it at some point of its maddening scale—its insane assurance of the hopelessness of jungle fever.
From Son of Power by Comfort, Will Levington
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
