limbo

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: lim=bo

CIDE DICTIONARY

limbo, n. [L. limbus border, edge in limbo on the border. Cf. Limb border.].

•  An spiritual region where certain classes of souls were supposed to await the last judgment.  [1913 Webster]

  " The limbus patrum was considered as a place for the souls of good men who lived before the coming of our Savior. The limbus infantium was said to be a similar place for the souls of unbaptized infants. To these was added, in the popular belief, the limbus fatuorum, or fool's paradise, regarded as a receptacle of all vanity and nonsense."  [1913 Webster]

  "As far from help as Limbo is from bliss."  [1913 Webster]

  "A Limbo large and broad, since called
  The Paradise of fools."  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence: Any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement; a prison; as, to put a man in limbo.  [1913 Webster]
•  A state of waiting, or uncertainty, in which final judgment concerning the outcome of a decision is postponed, perhaps indefinitely; neglect for an indefinite time; as, the proposal was left in limbo while opponents and proponents refused to compromise.  [PJC]
•  A border or margin; as, the limbus of the cornea.  [1913 Webster]

limbo, n. [Jamaican E. limba to bend, fr. E. limber (1950) MW10].

 A West Indian dance contest, in which participants must dance under a pole which is lowered successively until only one participant can successfully pass under, without falling. It is often performed at celebrations, such as weddings.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

limbo, n. (pl. -os)
1 (in some Christian beliefs) the supposed abode of the souls of unbaptized infants, and of the just who died before Christ.
2 an intermediate state or condition of awaiting a decision etc.
3 prison, confinement.
4 a state of neglect or oblivion.

limbo, n. (pl. -os) a W. Indian dance in which the dancer bends backwards to pass under a horizontal bar which is progressively lowered to a position just above the ground.

Etymology

a W. Indian word, perh. = LIMBER(1)

THESAURUS

limbo

Abaddon, Gehenna, Hades, Naraka, Pandemonium, Sheol, Tophet, avichi, cage, coop, enclosure, hell, in abeyance, infernal regions, inferno, jahannan, lower world, nether world, on the shelf, pen, penfold, perdition, pinfold, place of confinement, place of torment, pound, purgatory, shades below, suspended, the abyss, the bottomless pit, the grave, the pit, treading water, underworld

ROGET THESAURUS

limbo

Restraint

N restraint, hindrance, coercion, cohibition, constraint, repression, suppression, discipline, control, confinement, durance, duress, imprisonment, incarceration, coarctation, entombment, mancipation, durance vile, limbo, captivity, blockade, arrest, arrestation, custody, keep, care, charge, ward, restringency, curb, lettres de cachet, limitation, restriction, protection, monopoly, prohibition, prisoner, repressionist, restrained, constrained, imprisoned, pent up, jammed in, wedged in, under lock and key, under restraint, under hatches, in swaddling clothes, on parole, in custody, doing time, cohibitive, coactive, stiff, restringent, strait-laced, hidebound, barkbound, ice bound, wind bound, weather bound, cabined cribbed confined, in Lob's pound, laid by the heels.

Prison

N prison, prison house, jail, gaol, cage, coop, den, cell, stronghold, fortress, keep, donjon, dungeon, Bastille, oubliette, bridewell, house of correction, hulks, tollbooth, panopticon, penitentiary, guardroom, lockup, hold, round house, watch house, station house, sponging house, station, house of detention, black hole, pen, fold, pound, inclosure, isolation (exclusion), penal settlement, penal colony, bilboes, stocks, limbo, quod, calaboose, chauki, choky, thana, workhouse, Newgate, Fleet, Marshalsea, King's Bench, Queen's Bench, bond, bandage, irons, pinion, gyve, fetter, shackle, trammel, manacle, handcuff, straight jacket, strait jacket, strait-jacket, strait-waistcoat, hopples, vice, vise, yoke, collar, halter, harness, muzzle, gag, bit, brake, curb, snaffle, bridle, rein, reins, bearing rein, martingale, leading string, tether, picket, band, guy, chain, cord, cavesson, hackamore, headstall, jaquima, lines, ribbons, bolt, deadbolt, bar, lock, police lock, combination lock, padlock, rail, wall, stone wall, paling, palisade, fence, picket fence, barbed wire fence, Cyclone fence, stockade fence, chain-link fence, barrier, barricade, drag.

Hell

N hell, bottomless pit, place of torment, habitation of fallen angels, Pandemonium, Abaddon, Domdaniel, jahannan, sheol, hell fire, everlasting fire, everlasting torment, eternal damnation, lake of fire and brimstone, fire that is never quenched, worm that never dies, purgatory, limbo, gehenna, abyss, Tartarus, Hades, Avernus, Styx, Stygian creek, pit of Acheron, Cocytus, infernal regions, inferno, shades below, realms of Pluto, Pluto, Rhadamanthus, Erebus, Tophet, hellish, infernal, stygian, dies irae dies illa, the hue of dungeons and the scowl of night.