cannibal

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can·ni·bal

(kăn′ə-bəl)

1. A person who eats the flesh of other humans.

2. An animal that feeds on others of its own kind.

[From Spanish Caníbalis, name (as recorded by Christopher Columbus) of the allegedly cannibalistic Caribs of Cuba and Haiti, from earlier Carib karibna, person, Carib.]

can′ni·bal·ism n.

can′ni·bal·is′tic adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cannibal

(ˈkænɪbəl)

1. (Anthropology & Ethnology)

a. a person who eats the flesh of other human beings

b. (as modifier): cannibal tribes.

2. an animal that feeds on the flesh of others of its kind

[C16: from Spanish Canibales, name used by Columbus to designate the Caribs of Cuba and Haiti, from Arawak caniba, variant of Carib]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

can•ni•bal

(ˈkæn ə bəl)

n.

1. a person who eats human flesh, esp. for magical or religious purposes.

2. any animal that eats its own kind.

adj.

3. pertaining to or like a cannibal.

4. given to cannibalism.

[1545–55; < Sp caníbal, variant of caríbal <canib-, carib- (< Arawak)]

can′ni•bal•ly, adv.

cannibal

- When Columbus was trying to find the Spice Islands, he was told of a tribe of man-eating natives in Cuba and Haiti called Caribs (from which we get Caribbean) or Caniba (Columbus' rendition of the name); the word canib, meaning "brave and fierce," became cannibal, meaning "anthropophagite," a person who eats human flesh.

cannibal

[ˈkænɪbəl]

A. ADJ → antropófago

B. N → caníbal mf, antropófago/a m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cannibal

[ˈkænɪb^əl] n → cannibale mf, anthropophage mf

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

cannibal

n (= person) → Kannibale m, → Kannibalin f, → Menschenfresser(in) m(f); these insects are cannibals → diese Insekten fressen sich gegenseitig

adj → kannibalisch; animals → sich gegenseitig auffressend

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

cannibal

[ˈkænɪb/əl] n → cannibale m/f

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

cannibal

(ˈkӕnibəl) noun

1. a person who eats human flesh.

2. an animal etc which eats others of its own species.

ˈcannibalism noun

ˌcannibaˈlistic adjective

References in classic literature ?

M'ganwazam will rear him carefully, making a good cannibal of him, and if you ever chance to return to civilization it will doubtless afford you much food for thought as you compare the luxuries and comforts of your life with the details of the life your son is living in the village of the Waganwazam.

I cannot make him the son of a cannibal chief, but"--and he paused as though to let the full meaning of his threat sink deep--"I can make the mother the wife of a cannibal, and that I shall do--after I have finished with her myself."

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I hope I have given some assurance that the adventures of my dog hero in this novel are real adventures in a very real cannibal world.

Of course, as every one knew, kinky-haired cannibals no longer obtained on the earth's surface, much less ran around with nothing on, chopping off one another's heads, and, on occasion, a white man's head as well.

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You shuddered as you gazed, and wondered what monstrous cannibal and savage could ever have gone a death-harvesting with such a hacking, horrifying implement.

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--Tell me not of thy teeth-tiered sharks, and thy kidnapping cannibal ways.

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do you not see that the cannibal has commenced the attack?"

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"So you say, so you say," the old cannibal murmured soothingly.

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They ascended the accommodation ladder, were greeted by the Commodore, hat in hand, and passing along the quarter-deck, the marine guard presented arms, while the band struck up 'The King of the Cannibal Islands'.

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That he was a cannibal she would not believe, but that he was an adopted member of some savage tribe at length seemed possible to her.

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Also, one gruesome vision he caught of his own head, sun-dried and smoke-cured, ornamenting the canoe house of a cannibal village.

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It carried him back to his boyhood when he had been excited by tales of wild cannibals in far lands and dreamed some day to see them for himself.