zombie

Rarely zom·bi

[zom-bee]

noun

1. (in Vodou)

   1. a mute and will-less body, robbed of its soul and given the semblance of life by a supernatural force, usually for manual labor or some evil purpose.

   2. the supernatural force itself.

2. (in popular culture) an undead creature with a reanimated human body, typically depicted in science fiction or horror stories as contagious to the living by bite and vulnerable only to serious head trauma.

   In the movie, survivors of the apocalypse try to build a barricade to keep the zombies out.

3. Informal.

   1. a person whose behavior or responses are wooden, listless, or seemingly rote; automaton.

   2. an eccentric or peculiar person.

4. a snake god worshiped in West Indian and Brazilian religious practices of African origin.

5. a tall drink made typically with several kinds of rum, citrus juice, and often apricot liqueur.

6. Canadian Slang.,  an army conscript assigned to home defense during World War II.

adjective

1. of or relating to something that was declared concluded, finished, or dead, but surprisingly continues to linger, or comes back in a different version: resuscitating zombie corporations through debt restructuring;

   zombie legislation that was defeated last session;

   resuscitating zombie corporations through debt restructuring;

   a zombie ex who texts you out of the blue looking for a hookup.

zombie

/ ˈzɒmbɪ /

noun

1. a person who is or appears to be lifeless, apathetic, or totally lacking in independent judgment; automaton

2. a supernatural spirit that reanimates a dead body

3. a corpse brought to life in this manner

4. the snake god of voodoo cults in the West Indies, esp Haiti, and in scattered areas of the southern US

5. the python god revered in parts of West Africa

6. a piece of computer code that instructs an infected computer to send a virus on to other computer systems

Other Word Forms

• zombiism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of zombie¹

First recorded in 1810–20; from Louisiana French, Haitian Creole zonbi, from a Bantu language, e.g., Kongo nzambi “god,” zumbi “fetish,” or Kimbundu nzambi “god”

Word History and Origins

Origin of zombie¹

from Kongo zumbi good-luck fetish

Example Sentences

“They enter almost like a zombie state until the kelp regrows, and then they eradicate it again.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Renowned as a queen of literary horror — her stories brim with ghosts, werewolves, zombie infants — here she reveals a realist side, journalistic yet intimate.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Lady Gaga is also teetering around on crutches, cavorting with zombies and crossing the River Styx.

Read more on BBC

Our reporter, posing as a schoolgirl, bought four bottles through a dealer on the social media site that later tested positive for the so-called zombie drug.

Read more on BBC

It was a very much more sweet story, rather than this one, which is much more macabre, sort of inspired by Frankenstein, zombie movies.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• demon 
• devil 
• phantom 
• shadow 
• soul 
• specter 
• vampire 
• vision