mambo
/ˈmambəʊ
/noun (plural mambos)
1A Latin American dance similar in rhythm to the rumba.For the mambo, cha-cha, merengue, and the traditional rhythmic dance the son, each dancer moved vigorously yet effortlessly, even as the tempo changed....
- Along the way, she sees some musicians playing while the neighbourhood churns with the mambos and rumbas she learned from her parents.
- But while dancing the mambo in a fruit headdress, this art history major secretly desired to emulate Elsie de Wolfe, the influential society decorator.
2A voodoo priestess.These gods are not only expected to protect people, but they are also expected to accord special favors through their representatives on earth which are the mambos....
- Two autobiographical carvings depict his belief that a mambo had cursed him by placing snakes in his belly.
- She returned in 1936, having passed rigorous initiation rites to become a mambo.
verb (mamboes, mamboing, mamboed) [no object]
Dance the mambo: the floor throbbed as the mass of dancers mamboed seriously...
- But this didn't stop her from moving to the beat of the driving conga drums as my brother taught us to mambo in our living room.
- You'll laugh and mambo with the locals in Havana, Cuba.
- You may find yourself mamboing around your living room before you know it.
Origin
1940s: from American Spanish, probably from Haitian Creole, from Yoruba, literally 'to talk'.