the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. In Guam and the Philippines, an idol, fetich, or spirit.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. An ancestral spirit worshiped as a protecting household deity by the pagan Malay peoples of the Philippine Islands, and frequently represented by an image of wood or other material which is carefully preserved.
Word Usage
"Now, with their new religious ideas, the Tagáls apply the term anito to any superstition, false worship, idol, etc."