English
Indian
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈɪndɪən/
  • (GA) IPA: /ˈɪndi.ən/
Adjective

Indian

  1. Of or relating to India or its people; or (formerly) of the East Indies. [from 14th c.]
    Synonyms: Indic, Indish, Desi
  2. (obsolete) Eastern; Oriental.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, volume 10:
      The morrow next apprear'd with purple hayre / Yet dropping fresh out of the Indian fount, / And bringing light into the heavens fayre […] .
  3. Of or relating to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. [from 16th c.]
    • 1879, Friedrich August Flückiger & al., Pharmacographia... ↗, p. 346 ↗:
      The hardships of bark-collecting in the primeval forests of South America are of the severest kind, and undergone only by the half-civilized Indian and people of mixed race, in the pay of speculators or companies located in the towns.
    Synonyms: Aboriginal, Amerind, Amerindian, First Nations, native
  4. (North America, of foods) Made with Indian corn or maize. [from 17th c.]
    Indian bread; Indian meal
  5. (chess) Designating any of various chess opening now characterised by black's attempt to control the board through knights and fianchettoed bishops rather than with a central pawn advance. [from 19th c.]
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Noun

Indian (plural Indians)

  1. A person from India#English|India. [from 13th c.]
  2. A Native American#English|Native American, a member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (generally excluding the Aleut, Inuit, Metis, or Yupik). [from 16th c.]
    • 2004, Louis L'Amour, Rustlers of West Fork
      With savage desperation the Indian lunged his horse straight at Hopalong and, knife in hand, leaped for him!
  3. (now rare, historical) An indigenous inhabitant of Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific islands. [from 18th c.]
  4. (uncountable) Indian cuisine; traditional Indian food.
  5. (UK, colloquial) A meal at (or taken away from) an Indian restaurant. [from 20th c.]
    We're going out tonight for an Indian.
  6. (UK, colloquial) An Indian restaurant.
    We're going down the Indian for a curry - wanna join us?
Synonyms Translations Translations Proper noun
  1. (nonstandard) Any of the (unrelated) languages spoken by American Indians.
  2. (nonstandard, rare) Any language spoken by natives of India, especially Hindi.
    • 1968 Anne Rider, A hilltop in hazard, page 51:
      [They said] 'Mutton can speak Indian', 'Mutton can see Kanchinjunga out of his bedroom window'[.]


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