Indian sign
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
Indian sign (plural Indian signs)
- (idiomatic, dated, mildly offensive) A curse causing loss of will power or persistent bad luck.
- 1913, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 12, in The Little Nugget:
- "You certainly are my jinx, sonny. You have hung the Indian sign on me all right."
- 1921, Arthur B. Reeve, chapter 6, in The Film Mystery:
- "We have been jinxed with a vengeance. Some one has held the Indian sign on us for sure."
- 1947, Dark Passage (motion picture), Warner Brothers:
- Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart): Nah, I've got the Indian sign on me. It seems I can't win.
- 1996, Mario Puzo, The Last Don, →ISBN, page 83:
- "You're the only woman who ever had the Indian sign on me. I married late and I know I'll never marry again."
- 2018 June 25, David Hytner, "Mikel aiming to turn tables 13 years after Messi took his Golden Ball", The Guardian
- Argentina have held an Indian sign over Nigeria at World Cups going back to 1994, when the African nation first qualified.
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Synonyms
- curse, hex, hoodoo, jinx, spell
References
- Indian sign at OneLook Dictionary Search