noun
- a wild land overgrown with dense vegetation, often nearly impenetrable, especially tropical vegetation or a tropical rain forest.
- a tract of such land.
- a wilderness of dense overgrowth; a piece of swampy, thickset forestland.
- any confused mass or agglomeration of objects; jumble: a jungle of wrecked automobiles.
- something that baffles or perplexes; maze: a jungle of legal double-talk.
- a scene of violence and struggle for survival: The neglected prison was a jungle for its inmates.
- a place or situation of ruthless competition: the advertising jungle.
- Slang. a hobo camp.
noun
- a novel (1906) by Upton Sinclair.
noun
- an equatorial forest area with luxuriant vegetation, often almost impenetrable
- any dense or tangled thicket or growth
- a place of intense competition or ruthless struggle for survivalthe concrete jungle
- a type of fast electronic dance music, originating in the early 1990s, which combines elements of techno and ragga
- US slang (esp in the Depression) a gathering place for the unemployed, etc
1776, from Hindi jangal “desert, forest, wasteland, uncultivated ground,” from Sanskrit jangala-s “arid, sparsely grown with trees,” of unknown origin. Specific sense of “land overgrown by vegetation in a wild, tangled mass” is first recorded 1849; meaning “place notoriously lawless and violent” is first recorded 1906, from Upton Sinclair’s novel (cf. asphalt jungle, 1949, William R. Burnett’s novel title, made into a film 1950 by John Huston; blackboard jungle, 1954, Evan Hunter’s novel title, movie in 1955). Jungle gym was a trademark name, 1923, by Junglegym Inc., Chicago, U.S. Jungle bunny, derogatory for “black person,” attested from 1966.
see law of the jungle.