Examples of cannibal in a Sentence
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Odd tangents by Trump, such as about the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter or the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, have also become routine.
—
Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2024
Of course, not all tales of pop culture’s most enduring cannibal have been made equal.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2024
He’s decked out like a Tintin caricature of a cannibal, in bones and a grass skirt.
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2024
In recent speeches Trump has also likened immigrants to Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal in the film Silence of the Lambs.
—Jasmine Garsd, NPR, 11 Sep. 2024
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Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2024
Of course, not all tales of pop culture’s most enduring cannibal have been made equal.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2024
He’s decked out like a Tintin caricature of a cannibal, in bones and a grass skirt.
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2024
In recent speeches Trump has also likened immigrants to Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal in the film Silence of the Lambs.
—Jasmine Garsd, NPR, 11 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for cannibal
Dictionary Entries Near cannibal
Cite this Entry
“Cannibal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cannibal. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cannibal
noun
can·ni·bal
ˈkan-ə-bəl 
: a human being or an animal that eats its own kind
Etymology
from New Latin Canibalis "Carib," from Spanish Caníbal (same meaning), from Taino (American Indian language of the Greater Antilles) Caniba (same meaning), of Carib origin
Word Origin
On Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World the Indigenous peoples whom he encountered in Cuba and Hispaniola told him about a people living to their east, who periodically raided them and whom they greatly feared. In his log Columbus recorded a number of phonetically similar names for this people, including caníbales and caribes. The Spanish court historian Petrus Martyr wrote a Latin account of Columbus's discoveries, first printed in 1516, that used these two words and widely distributed them throughout Europe. In Petrus Martyr's words, "the inhabitants of these islands assert that the Canibales or Caribes are eaters of human flesh." Later, the meaning of the two words diverged. Caribes was applied to the Carib-speaking peoples of the Lesser Antilles and South America who were so feared by their neighbors; it is also ultimately the base of the word Caribbean. Canibales passed into English as a generic word for any creature that eats the flesh of its own kind.
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