Meanings
- uncountableThe practice of wearing a labret.
In Africa labretifery is quite common, and varies from tribe to tribe.
1891 Prof. Frederick Starr, "Dress and Adornment," Popular Science, Vol. 39, No. 30 (August 1891), Bonnier Corporation, p4902 more examples
They include labretifery, tattooing the chin of adult women, certain uses of masks, a certain style of conventionalizing objects, the use of conventional signs as hieroglyphics, [...] and of artistic representations connected with their common religious or mythological ideas.
1911, Ellen Churchill Semple, Influences of Geographic Environment on the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography,, page 395Labretifery occurred over a wide distribution from the Kuriles to southern British Columbia in the late prehistoric period.
1995 Allen P. McCartney, Hunting the largest animals: native whaling in the western Arctic and subarctic, Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta, p9
Origin
From labret + -i- + -fer + -y.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
labretifery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/labretifery
“labretifery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/labretifery. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “labretifery,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/labretifery.
Source: labretifery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.