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windigo

[win-di-goh]
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noun
  1. (in the folklore of the Ojibwa and other Indians) a cannibalistic giant, the transformation of a person who has eaten human flesh.
  2. Psychiatry. a culture-specific syndrome occurring primarily among the Ojibwa and related Indian peoples and characterized by fever-induced delusions that one is being possessed by such a giant.
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Origin of windigo

1705–15; < Ojibwa wi·ntiko·; cognate with Cree wi·htiko·w
Also called witigo.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for windigo

Historical Examples

  • 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

  • The Windigo at once consented: we got into his canoe, and he ferried us over.

British Dictionary definitions for windigo

windigo

noun
  1. a variant of wendigo
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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