the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose.
the supernatural force itself.
(in popular culture) an undead creature with a reanimated human body, typically depicted in science fiction or horror stories as contagious to the living by bite and vulnerable only to serious head trauma: In the movie, survivors of the apocalypse try to build a barricade to keep the zombies out.
Informal.
a person whose behavior or responses are wooden, listless, or seemingly rote; automaton.
an eccentric or peculiar person.
a snake god worshiped in West Indian and Brazilian religious practices of African origin.
a tall drink made typically with several kinds of rum, citrus juice, and often apricot liqueur.
CanadianSlang. an army conscript assigned to home defense during World War II.
adjective
of or relating to something that was declared concluded, finished, or dead, but surprisingly continues to linger, or comes back in a different version: zombie legislation that was defeated last session;resuscitating zombie corporations through debt restructuring;a zombie ex who texts you out of the blue looking for a hookup.
Sometimes zom·bi .
Origin of zombie
First recorded in 1810–20; from Louisiana French, Haitian Creole zonbi, from a Bantu language, e.g., Kongo nzambi “god,” zumbi “fetish,” or Kimbundu nzambi “god”
OTHER WORDS FROM zombie
zom·bi·ism,noun
Words nearby zombie
zolmitriptan, Zoloft, zolpidem, zolpidem tartrate, Zomba, zombie, zombie bank, zombify, Zomig, zona, zona fasciculata