zombiehttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zombie_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezombie, n.
Revised 2021

zombienoun

  1. I.
    The ghost or spirit of a dead person; a reanimated corpse, or a being likened to or resembling one.
    1. I.1.
      1788–
      In parts of the Caribbean (esp. Haiti) and the southern United States: the ghost or spirit of a dead person, esp. a malevolent one. Cf. zumbi n., jumbie n., duppy n. Now rare.
      In early use frequently in French contexts, esp. in translations from French.
      1. 1788
        Some supposed that the Zombies had carried him off [French que les Zombis l'avoient enlevé]. [footnote] The Zombies make a great figure in the superstition of the Negroes. Like the Larvæ of the antients, they are supposed to be the spirits of dead wicked men, that are permitted to wander, and torment the living.
        Universal Magazine September 117/1
      2. 1838
        In distinguishing the voice of a human being his terror of zombies was dissipated.
        La Belle Assemblée April 351/2
      3. 1924
        A sudden gust of horror as the (demon) zombi passes.
        New York Times 6 January (Book Review section) 21/5
      4. 1979
        Zombies were black shapeless things. They could get through a locked door and you heard them walking up to your bed. You didn't see them, you felt their hairy hands round your throat.
        J. Rhys, Smile Please 30
      1. I.2.a.
        1928–
        Esp. in parts of the Caribbean (esp. Haiti) and the southern United States: a soulless corpse said to have been revived by witchcraft.
        The concept of the zombie was popularized by U.S. writer and explorer W. B. Seabrook (1884–1945), particularly in the book The Magic Island (1929), and slightly later by the film White Zombie (1932), which was based on this book.
        1. 1928
          A ‘Zombie’—perhaps a real one; perhaps just a demented old man—believed by Haitian peasants to have been exhumed after death, revivified by sorcery and put to work as a slave in the fields.
          W. B. Seabrook in Sunday State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska) 25 March iii. 1c/2 (caption)
        2. 1966
          Luckily no one dared move on the roads at night; it was the hour when only zombies worked or else the Tontons Macoute.
          G. Greene, Comedians i. iv. 104
        3. 1984
          A zombie, as every schoolboy knows, is a person who has been killed and raised from the dead by sinister voodoo priests called bocors.
          Times 26 January 12/6
        4. 2010
          The zombie in Haiti is a victim—deserving of pity more than fear. Without any recollection of its past or hope for the future, the zombie exists only in the present of its exploitation.
          K. L. Glover, Haiti Unbound ii. ii. 59
      2. I.2.b.
        1970–
        In horror films, books, etc.: a reanimated corpse, typically portrayed as a creature capable of movement but not rational thought, with an insatiable hunger for human flesh or brains. Also occasionally in extended use with reference to similar mindless creatures.
        Now the most common sense.
        1. 1970
          The countryside is overrun with these murderous zombies—evidently corpses revived by radiation from a rocket abortively shot to Venus.
          Monthly Film Bulletin January 8/2
        2. 1984
          Zombies in white-face drifted across the screen, masticating bratwurstlike strings of human intestine.
          T. C. Boyle, Budding Prospects (1985) i. i. 4
        3. 1996
          The zombies can only by killed by disgusting, brain-spattering blows to the head.
          St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 14 June e3
        4. 2011
          What's that lurking in the shadows? A ghoul? A goblin? A flesh-eating zombie?
          FourFourTwo October 28/4
      1. I.3.a.
        1936–
        figurative. colloquial. A dull, apathetic, unresponsive, or unthinkingly acquiescent person. Also as a general term of disparagement.
        1. 1936
          Any performer [in a film] not a Caucasian is a zombie.
          H. L. Mencken, American Language (ed. 4) xi. 587
        2. 1946
          They've spent their lives starving their imagination, just starving it to death. And now they're zombies.
          J. B. Priestley, Bright Day xi. 329
        3. 1981
          They'll give us electric shocks... They'll give us pills and make us zombies.
          P. Carey, Bliss iv. 156
        4. 2016
          We're all self-medicated, middle-class zombies.
          Sunday Telegraph (Nexis) 24 July (Business section) 12
      2. I.3.b.
        1942–
        Canadian Military slang. In the Second World War (1939–45): (a derogatory nickname for) a man conscripted for home defence under the National Resources Mobilization Act of 1940, as distinct from a volunteer for active service overseas. Chiefly in plural. Now historical.
        1. 1942
          It is a matter of common knowledge that they [sc. military conscripts] are called ‘zombies’ by the other chaps in camp.
          Canadian Statesman (Bowmanville, Ontario) 29 January 6/3
        2. 1946
          My old man says Quebec or no Quebec they'll have to send the Zombies over.
          R. Allen, Home Made Banners xiii. 163
        3. 2016
          By 1944 the ranks of the zombies did contain a larger proportion of French-speaking conscripts and men from other non-British backgrounds than among the national population.
          D. T. Byers, Zombie Army vi. 170
    2. I.4.
      1974–
      Philosophy. A hypothetical being which responds to stimuli in the same way as a normal person, but which lacks conscious experience.
      1. 1974
        If the argument is sound, then the causal analysis fails to provide a basis for rejecting the logical possibility of Zombies, because it fails to take account of some of the phenomena necessarily involved in sentience.
        R. Kirk in Mind vol. 83 55
      2. 1994
        An intentional zombie is a creature which has intentional states but has and can have no conscious states at all.
        Philosophical & Phenomenological Research vol. 54 837
      3. 2016
        If zombies are logically possible, the argument goes, conscious experience cannot be physical.
        Behavior & Philosophy vol. 43 9
  2. II.
    Extended and other uses.
    1. II.5.
      1938–
      Originally U.S. A long cocktail consisting of several kinds of rum, liqueur, and fruit juice.
      1. 1938
        At the Beachcombers' club they all had fun at Sampascoopie's expense when I gulped a ‘Zombie’... It is made of five different kinds of rum.
        Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun 27 August 4/3
      2. 1968
        The bartender..went off to prepare a zombie. Forbes hated zombies, but it was the longest drink that came to mind.
        J. M. Ullman, Lady on Fire vi. 80
      3. 2019
        Let's drink a zombie from a cocoa shell!
        @SheilaDelutri 1 October in twitter.com (accessed 7 Dec. 2020)
    2. II.6.
      1985–
      Finance. A failing bank, business, etc., which relies on financial assistance from the government to continue operating. Also: a person who or company which is only able to repay the interest on a debt but not the debt itself. Frequently more fully as zombie bank, zombie debtor, etc.
      1. 1985
        Large parts of the oil industry, the zombies of the savings, banking and insurance world (still stumbling along but long since dead in terms of true solvency).
        Financial Times 28 September (Weekend FT section) 1/1
      2. 1986
        The fact that ‘zombie’ thrifts are allowed to survive creates serious problems for other, healthier thrifts as well as for bank intermediaries. The zombies tend to bid up the price of deposits, victimizing their neighbors.
        American Banker (Nexis) 8 April 1
      3. 1998
        He cut short-term rates sharply in 1990 to bail out Citibank and other zombie banks that were awash in bad loans but were too big to be allowed to fail.
        Washington Post 1 December d3/1
      4. 2012
        One in six people was a ‘zombie debtor’, only able to service the interest on their debts and not reduce them.
        Daily Echo (Nexis) 25 April
    3. II.7.
      1999–
      Computing. A computer or computer network infected with malicious software and controlled without the owner's knowledge, typically used to send spam, perform distributed denial of service attacks, etc. Frequently more fully as zombie computer, zombie network, etc. Cf. botnet n. (b).
      1. [1996
        In an age of colorful, network-based threats such as viruses, worms, freeloaders, and zombies, there is amply justified reluctance to blindly execute unknown code.
        Digest Papers COMPCON '96 58/2]
      2. 1999
        The hackers are gaining control of as many as thousands of vulnerable zombie computers in order to magnify and direct their full-scale assault against a single victim from all directions.
        Infoworld Daily News (Nexis) 9 December
      3. 2000
        The group of machines used for the attack—sometimes called a zombie network—can be anywhere in the Internet, and consists of machines that have security weaknesses due to misconfiguration etc.
        Computer Weekly 2 March 44/3
      4. 2002
        The zombie then transmits a massive amount of packets of useless data to a specific Web site, thus clogging it up and achieving a denial of service attack.
        P. Lilley, Hacked, Attacked, & Abused 200
      5. 2013
        A ‘zombie computer’ is one that, unknown to its owner, has been infected with malicious software that allows a distant ‘zombie master’ to control it, along with potentially thousands of other machines similarly affected.
        T. Chatfield, Netymology xxxix. 121

zombie, n. was revised in September 2021.

zombie, n. was last modified in June 2025.