1. the consumption of human flesh by humans. See also kuru.

2. a pathological urge to devour human flesh, occasionally observed in schizophrenia and similar mental disturbances, such as windigo psychosis. In classical psychoanalytic theory, cannibalistic impulses are associated with fixation at the oral-biting phase of psychosexual development.

3. the ingestion by a nonhuman animal of a member of its own species. Some female insects kill their mate at the time of copulation and eat it as a source of protein for developing eggs. In some animal species, offspring are eaten, often in times of nutritional stress or when offspring are malformed and unlikely to survive. —cannibalistic adj.