Definition of "pidgin" [pidgin]

• A simplified form of speech that is usually a mixture of two or more languages, has a rudimentary grammar and vocabulary, is used for communication between groups speaking different languages, and is not spoken as a first or native language. Also called contact language. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""no got pidgin," and _pidgin English_ simply means a workable knowledge of colloquial English as picked up by tradesmen, servants and coolies, in contradistinction to English as taught in the schools."
• "My Mr. told me that the key to pidgin is to pick out the English words and try to make sense of them."
• "We gave them worm tablets and would ask them politely, in pidgin English, to collect their fecal matter in buckets for us."