totem pole
a pole or post carved and painted with totemic figures, erected by Indians of the northwest coast of North America, especially in front of their houses.
a hierarchical system: the bureaucratic totem pole.
Origin of totem pole
1Words Nearby totem pole
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use totem pole in a sentence
The project marks the first time House of Tears Carvers has made and moved such a large totem pole.
A 25-foot Native American totem pole arrives in D.C. after a journey to sacred lands across U.S. | Dana Hedgpeth | July 29, 2021 | Washington PostThe totem poles often are said to be a “spiritual being” and are considered sacred symbols of a tribe, clan or a family tradition.
A 25-foot Native American totem pole arrives in D.C. after a journey to sacred lands across U.S. | Dana Hedgpeth | July 29, 2021 | Washington PostHe would never deign me with any sort of acknowledgment, because I was too low on the totem pole.
Chloe Sevigny on ‘The Cosmopolitans,’ New York’s Frat Boy Takeover, and ‘Asshole’ Michael Alig | Marlow Stern | August 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTImagine how Vanessa feels, then, looking up from an even lower level on the sexual totem pole.
But as the U.S. killed all those leaders, the strikes continued and began working their way down the totem pole.
She was willing to talk to the most senior people or the lowest person on the totem pole.
As low man on the totem pole, I was relegated to the day shift.
Directly in front of the house a totem pole is placed, and near by a memorial pole is erected.
The Myths of the North American Indians | Lewis SpenceFrom one lip hung the inevitable toothpick which seemed to be the totem pole of these regional tribes.
I Walked in Arden | Jack CrawfordThe carved totem-pole monuments are the most striking of the objects displayed here.
Travels in Alaska | John MuirThe erection of a totem pole is made a grand affair, and is often talked of for a year or two beforehand.
Travels in Alaska | John MuirWe may outgrow our adoration of the Constitution or Private Property only to establish some new totem pole.
A Preface to Politics | Walter Lippmann
British Dictionary definitions for totem pole
a pole carved or painted with totemic figures set up by certain North American Indians, esp those of the NW Pacific coast, within a village as a tribal symbol or, sometimes, in memory of a dead person
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
Cultural definitions for totem pole
Among some Native Americans, a pole on which totems are carved. The totem pole usually stands in front of a house or shelter.
Notes for totem pole
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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