zombie

zombie

1. Literally, a corpse, usually human, that has been reanimated from the dead, especially one that ambles around mindlessly attacking or eating people. Often used as a modifier. In the story, he uses the genie's wish to bring his dead wife back to life, only to discover that she returns as a zombie. Like so many other zombie films, some unspecified virus spreads across the world, bringing the dead back to life.
2. By extension, someone who functions in a robotic or automatic manner, especially due to physical or mental fatigue. I was up all night dealing with two sick kids, so I've been a bit of a zombie in the office today. The work is so monotonous and repetitive that you turn into a bit of a zombie by the end of the day.

zombie apocalypse

A scenario depicted in apocalyptic fiction in which an onslaught of zombies (undead corpses) causes the collapse of human civilization. "The Walking Dead" and other shows and movies about a zombie apocalypse have proven wildly popular.
See also: apocalypse, zombie

zombie out

To function or behave in a listless, vacant, or robotic manner. An allusion to the characteristics typical of a zombie, a reanimated human corpse that shambles around mindlessly. I was up all night dealing with two sick kids, so I've been zombying out in the office today. You can't help but zombie out when you're doing such boring, menial tasks. My dad just sort of zombied out after my mother passed away.
See also: out, zombie
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

zombie

(ˈzɑmbi)
1. n. a weird and frightening person. Martin is practically a zombie. Doesn’t he ever go out—in the daylight, I mean? Britney’s getting to look like a zombie. Is she well?
2. n. a very stupid person. Please ask one of those zombies to stand by the door.
3. n. a very tired person. I feel like such a zombie. Maybe I’m not eating right.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • zombies
  • come to life
  • come alive
  • zombie out
  • back from the dead
  • come back from the dead
  • bumble
  • bumble along
  • bumble through
  • literally
References in periodicals archive
Students will get to learn all there is to know about being a creepy cadaver from Head Zombie Alex Noble, who has been running riot since the chase game was launched in the UK six years ago.
Book yourself in to Zombie School; Want to be a zombie? Well now you can. As Wales gets set for the return of 2.8 Hours Later, Kate Rees picks up some tips for creating the ultimate deathly persona
It's definitely a lot of fun and I think it's a good way to see how you would react if a zombie apocalypse does ever happen
UNDEAD-UCATION; LUKE BEARDSWORTH joins the city's scariest school, where terror is on the timetable
Risk rises with age, and the lungs of patients show evidence of zombie cells.
Reseachers see huge potential in attacking 'zombie cells' in your body
'Kingdom' presents some dynamic zombie chases-but it is the infernal politics being manipulated by Cho that take the breath away.
Netflix's 'Kingdom' is the final stage of onscreen zombie evolution
Zombie Nightmare will be coming to the Quadrant shopping centre in Swansea in October and November
Fifty people willing to become 'zombies' are being hunted in Swansea; They are wanted for a Halloween horror experience in a Swansea shopping centre
However, Zombie Infection has said recruitment will take place in the New Year before their first event at the end of January.
Your chance to work ... as a zombie
Dozens, possibly hundreds, of works on zombies, kaiju, and other creatures now populate publishers' bookshelves with a reader's market for the product as insatiable as the zombies under discussion.
Bishop, Kyle William. How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture: The Multifarious Walking Dead in the 21st Century Jefferson
Breathers: A Zombie s Lament (25) is narrated by a zombie who regains his self-confidence through attendance at "Undead Anonymous" meetings and becomes a champion for zombie rights (with a taste for human flesh).
Emerging Infectious Literatures and the Zombie Condition
We think and grow when we engage enthymemes, we act like, well, zombies, when we listen to syllogisms.
Enthymeme and Syllogism
This assault on the ears is soon joined by physical violence, as a hungry zombie attacks a young couple.
Les Affames
The main goal of this article is thus to explore both the birth and evolution of the zombie myth and its ideological significance and metaphorical function in present-day artistic discourses and non-artistic discourses.
The Zombie: a new myth in the making. A political and social metaphor
Enter Sarah Juliet Lauro's important new book, The Transatlantic Zombie, which offers the most thorough single "cultural history" of the zombie to date and an intelligent analytical statement about "zombie dialectics." Trained in the humanities and social thought, Lauro is at her best when writing about zombic representations in Anglophone fictional literature and film and in the conceptual, performance, and visual arts; her incisive social commentary on the zombie in general is also particularly valuable.
The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion, and Living Death
This work provides a history of the zombie, explaining how the myth's migration to the New World was facilitated by the transatlantic enslavement, and reveals the real-world import of storytelling, reminding us of the power of myths and mythmaking, and the high stakes of appropriation and homage.
Lauro, Sarah Juliet. The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion and Living Death
Yesterday's was the third annual zombie walk and John O'Brien, who came up with the idea, said: "It happens everywhere all over the world but I wanted to claim Liverpool and make it a really big day here "It's all for fun and a good cause but eventually we'd like to get into the hundreds and then into the thousands so we can make it a really massive day" The zombies met at Lime Street Station before moving to a secret location to get their makeup done.
Ghouls out for a very good cause
The event is Zombie Run UK, the date is Saturday, October 29 and the safe zone is Hamsterley Forest.
Run sure to end in undead heat