Lim'bo or Lim'bus, n.
n. [Lat. limbus, border, edge; It., Sp., & Pg. limbo, limbo; Pr. limbe, Fr. limbes, pl.]
Sense 1. (Scholastic Theol.) A region bordering on hell. “As far from help as limbo is from bliss.” Shak.
A limbo large and broad, since called The paradise of fools. Milton.
The limbus patrum was considered as a place for the souls of good men until the coming of our Savior. The limbus infantum was a similar place for the souls of unbaptized infants. To these was added, in the popular belief, the limbus fatuorum, or fools’ paradise, regarded as a receptacle of all vanity and nonsense.
Sense 2. Hence, any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement.
Sense 3. (Bot.) The border or expanded part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal which is supported by the unguis; the blade. See LIMB, n., No. 5.
