Limbo \Lim"bo\ (l[i^]m"b[-o]), Limbus \Lim"bus\ (-b[u^]s), 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.

Note: 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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)