{ Lim″bo (lĭm″bō̍), Lim″bus (–bŭs), } n. [L. limbus border, edge, in limbo on the border. Cf. Limb border.] 1. (Scholastic Theol.) An extramundane region where certain classes of souls were supposed to await the judgment.
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 who lived before the coming of our Savior. The limbus infantium was said to be a similar place for the souls of unbaptized infants. To these was added, in the popular belief, the limbus fatuorum, or fool's paradise, regarded as a receptacle of all vanity and nonsense.
2. Hence: Any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement; a prison; as, to put a man in limbo.
3. (Anat.) A border or margin; as, the limbus of the cornea.