mambo
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a modern Latin American dance, resembling the rumba, derived from the ritual dance of voodoo
-
a voodoo priestess
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mambo
First recorded in 1935–40; from Caribbean Spanish (Cuba), from Haitian Creole manbo “ritual dance; Vodou priestess”; perhaps from Kongo màmbu, plural of diàmbu “ritual negotiation, message”
Vocabulary lists containing mambo
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.
See Examples For:
To honor the ongoing local heritage of mambo sauce, an original documentary about the restaurateurs, fans, small business owners and sauce-makers behind it will be uploaded to the McDonald’s YouTube channel on Oct.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 26, 2023
For the first four innings, the Mariners seemed destined to take a step back in their never-ending dance between a winning record and a losing record — call it the mambo of mediocrity.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2023
Arriving at the dawn of the mambo era, this song is a riveting immersion in Puente’s rapidly coalescing sound.
From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2023
He then regaled the crowd — and even got Taylor Swift out of her seat to dance! — with his explosive mambo track, “Despues de la Playa.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2023
Popular items were the boxes on the floor filled with Spanish LPs from past decades, old mambo and salsa records, plena, bomba, Latin hits our parents would dance to.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
“On Thursday night Champagne hour, I would come out and do all these mambos and things.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2022
Musically, she showed uncommon adventurousness as well, singing everything from yodels and cowboy tunes to gospel standards, mambos, and torch ballads.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2018
He and a trio started with an album for Decca Records called “Bagels and Bongos,” which whimsically transformed melancholy Yiddish chestnuts like “Raisins and Almonds” and “My Yiddishe Momme” into cha-chas or mambos.
From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2016
High-flying mambos and glass-shattering blasts from Sandoval's trumpet helped get the crowd on its feet as actor Andy Garcia assumed the role of a bongo brick in the orchestra's wall of percussion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2014
But the buildings were here long before the mambos reigned, and who built them, or why, no one knows.
From Impressions of South Africa by Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount
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.
