Zoo
noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A park where live animals are exhibited. countable
"The London Zoo was built in 1828."
- 2 the facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition wordnet
- 3 Any place that is wild, crowded, or chaotic. countable, figuratively, informal
"The shopping center was a zoo the week before Christmas."
- 4 A large and varied collection of something. countable, figuratively, informal
"After his insightful book The Art of Alfred Hitchcock, Spoto published The Dark Side of Genius, a portrayal of the elderly director as a lonely man who was a veritable zoo of desires, suspicions, fears, and addictions (food, drink, romantic infatuation, and filmmaking)."
- 5 The jungle. US, countable, slang
"I'm not all that unhappy about being out on an actual patrol, but there's a worried feeling wandering around the back of my mind, not exactly fear, more like a sort of lurking anxiety at being out in the dreaded jungle, the zoo, where the enemy hides."
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- 6 Clipping of zoophile. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, informal
"Zoophiles, or 'zoos,' are sexually and emotionally attracted to animals, as in a sexual orientation."
- 7 Clipping of zoophile.; Pornographic material depicting actual animals or bestiality. broadly, informal, uncountable
Example
More examples"Can you tell me where the nearest zoo is?"
Etymology
Clipping of zoological garden or zoological park, now the usual form. See zoology. Sense 5 is a clipping of zoophile or zoophilia.
Related phrases
More for "zoo"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.