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Glite Dictionary
🚫 Not allowed 🚫 A forbidden rule 🚫 To forbid
to taboo

to taboo

5.6
To make something not allowed by social rules
  • verb
  • /təˈbu/
translation icon : prohibir
  • Many cultures taboo the discussion of certain subjects at public gatherings.

Examples

  • Among some peoples, secrecy is more concerned with tabooing the exposure of certain knowledge in inappropriate social circumstances than with actually keeping the information completely unknown to others, as appears to be the case among both the Angkaiyakmin and Poro.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Tabooing them might well drive them underground and render them all the more powerful.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Well, yeah, we can taboo 'truth'.

    Blog text (2)

  • I second tabooing probability, but I think that we need more than two words to replace it.

    Blog text (1)

  • I'm ready to taboo the word "manipulation" because it doesn't have a fixed meaning.

    Blog text (2)

  • It's important to respect the traditions that taboo certain behaviors during rituals.

  • The community decided to taboo gambling due to its negative effects on families.

Synonyms

to prohibit
vsto taboo
299 3.3

To officially say that something is not allowed by law

is based on social or cultural unacceptability, not legal authority
to disallow
vsto taboo
  • Formal
16 3.9

To refuse to allow something, usually by an official rule

is a social or cultural ban rather than an official rule

Antonyms

to allow
∞ 1.0

To let something happen or let someone do something

to sanction
  • Formal
53 6.3

To give official permission for something

How Forbidden

to prohibit
299 3.3
to taboo
5.6
to restrict
361 3.1
to discourage
257 3.5
to allow
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

taboo infinitive
tabooed past
tabooed past participle
tabooing present participle
taboos third person singular

Etymology

Taboo comes from the Polynesian tapu, meaning 'forbidden' or 'off limits', a word used when chiefs said certain things must not be done. So to taboo something is to forbid it or mark it as not allowed.