Definition of "taboo" []

• A ban or an inhibition resulting from social custom or emotional aversion. (noun)
• A prohibition, especially in Polynesia and other South Pacific islands, excluding something from use, approach, or mention because of its sacred and inviolable nature. (noun)
• An object, a word, or an act protected by such a prohibition. (noun)
• Excluded or forbidden from use, approach, or mention: a taboo subject. (adjective)
• To exclude from use, approach, or mention; place under taboo. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "By far, the most important victory for breaking the word taboo comes in Cohen v."
• "In an article in the Daily Telegraph, he describes the public reaction to his remarks as "hysterical", and says that a breach in what he calls the taboo on discussing race is "punished by ostracism and worse … the witch finders already have their sights on me"."
• "He says the Holocaust was being used to legitimise the suffering of other peoples and he wanted to break what he called a taboo on discussing it."