Meanings
nounmabiki (countable and uncountable, plural mabiki)
- countableuncountableThe Japanese practice of killing non-firstborn sons.
Usually, the daughters were spared because they could be married off, sold as servants or prostitutes, or sent off to become geisha, or professional entertainers. But in northern Japan alone, between 60,000 and 70,000 cases of mabiki were recorded each year.
1973 August 12, “Infanticide in Japan: Sign of the Times?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Dec 2024
Origin
- Japanese間引く
- Japanese間引く
- Englishmabiki
Borrowed from Japanese 間引き (mabiki, “to thin out”).
More words from Japanese
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
mabiki. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mabiki
MLA
“mabiki.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mabiki. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mabiki,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mabiki.
Source: mabiki on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.