1. Tiki Mythology. A male figure in Polynesian myth, sometimes identified as the first man.
2. A wooden or stone image of a Polynesian god.
3. A Maori figurine representing an ancestor, often intricately carved from greenstone and worn about the neck as a talisman.

[Maori.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.