medicine man

noun

1. (among North American Indians and some other aboriginal peoples) a person believed to possess magical or supernatural powers; shaman.

2. a seller of patent medicine, especially before 1900, presenting a medicine show to attract customers.

medicine man

noun

1. (among certain peoples, esp North American Indians) a person believed to have supernatural powers of healing; a magician or sorcerer

Word History and Origins

Origin of medicine man¹

First recorded in 1795–1805

Example Sentences

Jim Walker, her great-great-grandfather and a respected medicine man, rode mustangs all the way to Florida, visiting tribes along the way to exchange medicine and horses.

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His breakthrough came in 1990 when he played Kicking Bird, a Lakota medicine man, in Dances With Wolves.

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As a young mother, Ms. Rabha was told by a local medicine man that her mentally ill son would soon die; he didn’t.

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Law enforcement authorities say in the decades since starring in the Oscar-winning movie, Chasing Horse became a self-proclaimed medicine man among tribes and traveled around North America to perform healing ceremonies.

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She spent all her nonschool days at the medicine man’s, learning how to make foul-smelling medicines and treating injuries and illnesses.

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