SUPERSTITION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does superstition mean? 

• SUPERSTITION (noun)
  The noun SUPERSTITION has 1 sense:

1. an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear

  Familiarity information: SUPERSTITION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPERSTITION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

superstition; superstitious notion

Hypernyms ("superstition" is a kind of...):

belief (any cognitive content held as true)

Derivation:

superstitious (showing ignorance of the laws of nature and faith in magic or chance)

 Context examples 

This we shall fasten, for when it is there none can emerge; so at least says the superstition.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You will think me superstitious,—some superstition I have in my blood, and always had: nevertheless, this is true—true at least it is that I heard what I now relate.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This and a certain tinge of superstition were the only unusual traits in his character which his brother officers had observed.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He waited three days longer, and then his piety or his superstition drove him to try once more.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“A fig for superstition,” I said on Friday morning.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I thought of the Indian superstition of the Curupuri—the dreadful, lurking spirit of the woods—and I could have imagined that his terrible presence haunted those who had invaded his most remote and sacred retreat.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was a superstition among us that this cap had come from France, and could only originate in the workmanship of that ingenious nation: but all I certainly know about it, is, that it always made its appearance of an evening, wheresoever Mrs. Markleham made HER appearance; that it was carried about to friendly meetings in a Hindoo basket; that the butterflies had the gift of trembling constantly; and that they improved the shining hours at Doctor Strong's expense, like busy bees.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then it had occurred to him to work upon the superstitions of his former shipmates, and he was so far successful that Gray and the doctor had come up and were already ambushed before the arrival of the treasure-hunters.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She put them in his buttonhole as a peace offering, and he stood a minute looking down at them with a curious expression, for in the Italian part of his nature there was a touch of superstition, and he was just then in that state of half-sweet, half-bitter melancholy, when imaginative young men find significance in trifles and food for romance everywhere.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)