limbo1

[lim-boh] /ˈlɪm boʊ/
noun, plural limbos.
1.
(often initial capital letter) Roman Catholic Theology. a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants (limbo of infants) and of the righteous who died before the coming of Christ (limbo of the fathers or limbo of the patriarchs)
2.
a place or state of oblivion to which persons or things are regarded as being relegated when cast aside, forgotten, past, or out of date:
My youthful hopes are in the limbo of lost dreams.
3.
an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.
4.
a place or state of imprisonment or confinement.
Origin
1300-50; Middle English, from Medieval Latin phrase in limbō on hell's border (Latin: on the edge), equivalent to in on + limbō, ablative of limbus edge, border (L), place bordering on hell (ML); see limbus1

limbo2

[lim-boh] /ˈlɪm boʊ/
noun, plural limbos.
1.
a dance from the West Indies, originally for men only, in which the dancer bends backward from the knees and moves with a shuffling step under a horizontal bar that is lowered after each successive pass.
Origin
1955-60; compare Jamaican English limba to bend, easily bending; see limber1
Examples from the web for limbo
  • On the other hand, that leaves the country in a nervous state of limbo for nearly three months.
  • Still, uncertainty looms because of volatile prices and regulatory limbo.
  • Academia has become a limbo for fools and masochists.
  • It symbolises a legal limbo into which no law-abiding society should ever willingly stray.
  • All the while, millions of forest residents are hanging in limbo.
  • For now, the tiny tyrant sits in paleontological limbo.
  • But works created during the four decades in between live in limbo.
  • Guantanamo might not rate as a tourist spot, but it's proved the ideal place for keeping the detainees in legal limbo.
  • Many other restored films languish in a limbo of restricted access.
  • Promised reforms to bank regulation, meant to curb the excess before it starts all over again, are in limbo.
British Dictionary definitions for limbo

limbo1

/ˈlɪmbəʊ/
noun (pl) -bos
1.
(often capital) (RC Church) the supposed abode of infants dying without baptism and the just who died before Christ
2.
an imaginary place for lost, forgotten, or unwanted persons or things
3.
an unknown intermediate place or condition between two extremes: in limbo
4.
a prison or confinement
Word Origin
C14: from Medieval Latin in limbo on the border (of hell)

limbo2

/ˈlɪmbəʊ/
noun (pl) -bos
1.
a Caribbean dance in which dancers pass, while leaning backwards, under a bar
Word Origin
C20: origin uncertain
Word Origin and History for limbo
n.

"region supposed to exist on the border of Hell" reserved for pre-Christian saints (Limbus patrum) and unbaptized infants (Limbus infantum);" c.1300, from Latin limbo, ablative of limbus "edge, border" (see limb (2)). It emerged from Latin in the ablative form from frequent use in phrases such as in limbo (patrum), etc. Figurative sense of "condition of neglect or oblivion" is from 1640s.

dance in which the dancer bends backward and passes under a bar, 1956, of W.Indian origin, probably an alteration of limber.

limbo in Culture

limbo definition


In the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the afterlife, the condition of innocent persons who die without benefit of baptism; those in limbo do not suffer damnation, but they do not enjoy the presence of God. Limbo means “a bordering place.”

Note: Figuratively, “limbo” is a state of nonresolution or uncertainty: “Until he receives notice of his new posting, he'll be in limbo.”
Idioms and Phrases with limbo

limbo

see: in limbo