( pl -os ) n [ C ] ( slang offensive )
a black man. The children’s book The Story of Little Black Sambo (1899) by the English author Helen Bannerman was originally very popular both in Britain and the US but is now regarded as insulting to black people. The US group of Sambo’s Restaurants was named after the main character in the book and was criticized for this by African Americans and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission .