jungle fever

[ juhng-guhl fee-ver ]
See synonyms for jungle fever on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Pathology. a severe variety of malarial fever occurring in the East Indies and the tropics.

  2. 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.

Origin of jungle fever

1
First recorded in 1795–1805, and in 1960–65 for def. 2

Words Nearby jungle fever

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use jungle fever in a sentence

  • During this campaign he had been shot in the shoulder and had had a severe attack of jungle fever.

    In the Foreign Legion | Erwin Rosen
  • The jungle fever, of which the fatal seeds had been sown at Seringapatam, attacked him after a few days.

British Dictionary definitions for jungle fever

jungle fever

noun
  1. a serious malarial fever occurring in the East Indies

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012