wampum
Also called peag, seawan, sewan . cylindrical beads made from shells, pierced and strung, used by North American Indians as a medium of exchange, for ornaments, and for ceremonial and sometimes spiritual purposes, especially such beads when white but also including the more valuable black or dark-purple varieties.
Informal: Often Offensive. money.
Origin of wampum
1usage note For wampum
Words Nearby wampum
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use wampum in a sentence
America with lakes of lucre, waves of wampum, a Superstorm Sandy of simoleons, a Hurricane Katrina of cash.
The Federal Government Has Violated My Right to Chainsaw | P. J. O’Rourke | April 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTTake blankets and beads to the Wyandots and watch them hang up white wampum.
A Virginia Scout | Hugh PendexterBut wampum, like the race for whom it was made, was unable to hold its ground against the advancing civilization.
A short history of Rhode Island | George Washington GreeneThe beads found in them are very like those which the barbarous Indians called wampum and used as money.
The Story of the Thirteen Colonies | H. A. (Hlne Adeline) GuerberHe took off his head-dress and bracelets, both being of yellow leather edged with wampum, and presented them to Cartier.
The Indian in his Wigwam | Henry R. Schoolcraft
As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck—a pledge of truth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin.
The Indian in his Wigwam | Henry R. Schoolcraft
British Dictionary definitions for wampum
/ (ˈwɒmpəm) /
(formerly) money used by North American Indians, made of cylindrical shells strung or woven together, esp white shells rather than the more valuable black or purple ones
US and Canadian informal money or wealth
Origin of wampum
1- Also called: peag, peage
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for wampum
[ (wahm-puhm) ]
Beads made from polished shells that some Native Americans once used as money and jewelry.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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