windigo

[ win-di-goh ]

noun
  1. (in the folklore of the Ojibwe and other Algonquian peoples) a cannibalistic giant, the transformation of a person who has eaten human flesh.

  2. Psychiatry. a culture-specific syndrome occurring primarily among the Ojibwe and other Algonquian peoples and characterized by fever-induced delusions that one is being possessed by a cannibalistic giant.

Origin of windigo

1
First recorded in1705–15; from Ojibwe wi·ntiko·; cognate with Cree wi·htiko·w

Words Nearby windigo

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use windigo in a sentence

  • If he is a real windigo, it will only do him good by driving out the ice.

    La Ronge Journal, 1823 | George Nelson
  • They might overtake him, and if they did, a windigo could expect no mercy from them.

    The Island of Yellow Sands | E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill
  • He did not intend that the windigo should creep on their camp without his knowing it.

    The Island of Yellow Sands | E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill
  • But we must watch that we are not taken unawares by the evil windigo.

    The Island of Yellow Sands | E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill
  • He is a windigo, in league with the evil one and hungering for human flesh.

    The Island of Yellow Sands | E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill

British Dictionary definitions for windigo

windigo

/ (ˈwɪndɪˌɡəʊ) /


noun
  1. a variant of wendigo

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