An Oxford New Zealand dictionary definition of the word 'bro' left an Auckland woman reeling after it was accompanied by "Hurry up bro. [Spoken to a Māori adolescent who is raping his own sister]" as an example.

The definition of 'bro' in a 1997 Oxford New Zealand Dictionary has left an Auckland woman shocked, angry and hurt, she says.

Julia Rahui said she was over at her neighbour's house when he showed her the dictionary's definition of the word 'bro'.

The 1997 edition defined 'bro' as a word "used by Māori young people or to or of Māori, especially among gang members, or among members of the extended family."

In the dictionary it described the plural word, 'bros' was "one's Māori gang associates; Māori collectively".

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'Bros' was often used "humorously or ironically" it wrote.

The example that accompanied the definition was "Hurry up bro. [Spoken to a Māori adolescent who is raping his own sister]".

Rahui said it angered her that although the definition was written twenty years ago, "if this was the perception of Māori at that time, this is our history, this is real evidence in black in white of widely distributed text that paints Māori in such a poor light".

The references used to contextualise the word 'bro' were "completely out of context and incorrect," Rahui said.

"We express words to bind us to each other such as pepeha and essentially our whakapapa. Bro is to Māori an endearing term - brother. It's universal."

A spokeswoman for Oxford University Press, who published the The Oxford New Zealand Dictionary, said they "sincerely regret" any offence the entry had caused.

The Oxford New Zealand Dictionary was published in 1997 by Oxford and the New Zealand Dictionary Centre and was no longer in print, she said.

The dictionary was written on "historical principles and covers the history, development, and origins of words as well as current uses".

"As a work based on objective scholarly research, it includes quotations representing real usage of words over time, and may include usages which many would regard as offensive or derogatory," the spokeswoman said.

The usages "in no way" reflected the views of the publisher, she said.

"Dictionaries represent a record of living language at the time they are published," she said.

"Oxford regularly updates its dictionaries to reflect changes in the meaning of words."

"In our more recent dictionary, The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, the definition of 'bro' has been updated to "...a friendly greeting or form of address in Maori English".

This was a more contemporary reflection of the word 'bro' and its meaning today, the spokeswoman said.