tabooed

1. 1
   adjective

   Placed under a ban and not permitted.

   For decades, mental illness remained a tabooed topic in many workplaces.

   Visitors were warned away from the tabooed grove behind the temple.

   Similarforbidden, banned, prohibited, off-limits, proscribed

   Oppositepermitted, allowed, acceptable

   Note

   Beside the plain adjective taboo (a taboo subject), tabooed keeps the feel of a participle: something has been placed under a ban, by custom or by someone with the power to impose it. The word goes back to Polynesian tradition, where a taboo thing was sacred and could not be used, approached or mentioned, a sense still audible in a tabooed grove.

2. 2
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of taboo.

   The village had tabooed the spring, and no one would drink from it.

   The council tabooed any mention of the scandal at public meetings.

   Note

   The verb simply adds -ed after its double o, with nothing dropped or doubled: the elders tabooed the spring; the subject had been tabooed for years. It always takes an object, the thing or person placed under the ban, which is why it sits so easily in the passive.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2