limbo

4 definitions • 10 examples

the place between heaven and hell to which Roman Catholics believe that the spirits of dead children who have not been baptized go:

Limbo is the theological belief that children who die before being baptized are suspended in a space between heaven and hell.

In 1905 Pope Pius X declared that children who die without baptism go into limbo, where they do not enjoy God, but they do not suffer either.

an uncertain situation that you cannot control and in which there is no progress or improvement:

Until we have official permission to go ahead with the plans we're in limbo.

We felt that we were left in limbo wondering what was happening.

The prison camp was a kind of juridical limbo where people could be held indefinitely without trial.

a dance from the West Indies in which the dancer bends backwards to go under a low bar that is made lower each time he or she goes under it:

She was teaching her dad how to do the limbo.

Try doing a limbo under a really low wire.

There was a bit of limbo dancing going on.

an uncertain situation that you cannot control and in which there is no progress or improvement:

Until we've got official permission to go ahead with the plans we will remain in limbo.

bureaucratic/political/legal limbo