a secret political society consisting chiefly of Kikuyu tribesmen that was founded in 1952 to drive European settlers from Kenya by acts of terrorism
slang a Ugandan motorcycle policeman who directs traffic
1970; coined by Tom Wolfe in Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers; see Mau Mau
From Kikuyu
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
We wrote at the time about the campaign to mau-mau the Chief, and now we know it was orchestrated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2016
Chameleon-voiced as usual, and still given to Homeric catalogues and hang-ten metaphors, Wolfe inhabits an imaginary mau-mau character as he gleefully recalls some of the finer techniques.
From Time Magazine Archive
"General Kiambati", as he was known, was close to the iconic leader of the Mau Mau movement, Dedan Kimathi, who was executed by the British in 1957.
From Barron's ● Feb. 14, 2026
He witnessed those effects in person, growing up during Kenya’s Mau Mau uprising, an armed guerrilla insurgency that resisted British colonial rule and land ownership.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
The Kenya Land and Freedom Army, known as the Mau Mau, were fighting for independence from British colonial rule.
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2023
They awarded four veterans, who fought alongside the British, medals to replace ones they had disposed of during the Mau Mau uprising.
From Reuters ● Nov. 1, 2023
During the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s she and her family refused to build a fence around their home despite warnings that it was dangerous not to do so.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
