zombie

Alternative forms

• zombi

Etymology

[1871] From a Bantu language. Compare Kongo zumbi (“fetish”), Kimbundu nzambi (“god”), and Caribbean folklore's jumbee (a spirit or demon). May also be from a Louisiana Creole French word meaning "phantom, ghost" related to Spanish sombra. See also zombi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɒmbi/

Hyphenation: zom‧bie

Noun

zombie (plural zombies)

1. A snake god or fetish in religions of West Africa and elsewhere.
2. (voodoo, superstition) A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his/her own.
3. (fiction) A deceased person who becomes reanimate to attack the living.

   I shot a zombie. He was a zombie, Kenneth. The pilot was bitten before he picked us up!

   • 2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     The zombies first show up 20 minutes in, after Melanie volunteers herself as the next child to mysteriously disappear in the middle of the night. That’s when we learn that Melanie and her classmates are all “hungries,” or people infected with a toxic fungus that turns them into mindless flesh-eating animals.

4. (figuratively) An apathetic person.
5. (figuratively) A human being in a state of extreme mental exhaustion.

   After working for 18 hours on the computer, I was a zombie.

6. An information worker who has signed a nondisclosure agreement.^[1]
7. (computing) A process or task which has terminated but was not removed from the list of processes, typically because it has child processes that have not yet terminated.
8. (computing) A computer affected by malware which causes it to do whatever the attacker wants it to do without the user's knowledge.
9. A cocktail of rum and fruit juices.
   • 1976, Harvard Advocate CX:ii, pages 8 and 380:

     The maitre d’ introduced us and I had a zombie with him. Those zombies are wicked.

     […]

     I watched Mario and drank zombies out of a thermos.

10. (Canada, historical, derogatory) A conscripted member of the Canadian military during World War II who was assigned to home defence rather than to combat in Europe.^[2]
    • 1944, "Time for Decision," Time (US edition), 6 Nov.,

      Had the time come to order Canada's home defense draftees—some 70,000 zombies idling at home—to battle overseas?

11. (Australia, slang) Marijuana, or similar drugs.
12. (philosophy) A hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except in that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, or sentience.

References

Noun

zombie n (also sometimes feminine)

1. zombie

Adverb

zombie

1. in the manner of a zombie, zombically

Noun

zombie

1. Alternative form of zombi

Adjective

zombie

1. feminine singular of zombi

Noun

zombie m, f (invariable)

1. Alternative spelling of zombi

Etymology

From a Bantu language, via English zombie

Noun

zombie m (definite singular zombien, indefinite plural zombier, definite plural zombiene)

1. a zombie

See also

• zombi (Nynorsk) (although the spelling "zombie" is apparently also used)

References

• “zombie” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

Ultimately, from a Bantu language.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɔmbiɛ/

Noun

zombie m (genitive singular zombieho, nominative plural zombieovia, genitive plural zombieov, declension pattern of kuli)

1. zombie

References

• zombie in Slovak dictionaries at korpus.sk

Noun

zombie m (plural zombies)

1. Alternative spelling of zombi

Noun

zombie c

1. zombie