Adjacent Words

Corpse definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CORPSE, n. [L., a body.] The dead body of a human being.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the dead body of a human being; "the cadaver was intended for dissection"; "the end of the police search was the discovery of a corpse"; "the murderer confessed that he threw the stiff in the river"; "honor comes to bless the turf that wraps their clay" [syn: cadaver, corpse, stiff, clay, remains]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English corps, from Anglo-French cors, corps, from Latin corpus Date: 13th century 1. archaic a human or animal body whether living or dead 2. a. a dead body especially of a human being b. the remains of something discarded or defunct <the corpses of rusting cars>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a dead (usu. human) body. Phrases and idioms: corpse-candle 1 a lambent flame seen in a churchyard or over a grave, regarded as an omen of death. 2 a lighted candle placed beside a corpse before burial. Etymology: ME corps, var. spelling of cors (CORSE), f. OF cors f. L corpus body

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Corpse Corpse (k[^o]rps), n. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.] 1. A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuously. [Obs.] Note: Formerly written (after the French form) corps. See Corps, n., 1. 2. The dead body of a human being; -- used also Fig. He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. --D. Webster. Corpse candle. (a) A thick candle formerly used at a lich wake, or the customary watching with a corpse on the night before its interment. (b) A luminous appearance, resembling the flame of a candle, sometimes seen in churchyards and other damp places, superstitiously regarded as portending death. Corpse gate, the gate of a burial place through which the dead are carried, often having a covered porch; -- called also lich gate.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(corpses) A corpse is a dead body, especially the body of a human being. = body N-COUNT

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

korps: This word in the King James Version is the translations of two Hebrew words, pegher, and gewiyah, while nebhelah, and guphah, which mean the same, are translated "body," with which the English word "corpse" (Latin, corpus) was originally synonymical. Therefore we find the now apparently unnecessary addition of the adjective "dead" in 2Ki 19:35 and Isa 37:36. The Greek equivalent is ptoma, literally, "a fallen body," "a ruin" (from pipto, "to fall"), in Mr 6:29; Re 11:8,9.

Corpses were considered as unclean and defiling in the Old Testament, so that priests were not to touch dead bodies except those of near kinsfolk (Le 21:1-3), the high priest and a Nazirite not even such (Le 21:11; Nu 6:6-8). Nu 19 presents to us the ceremonial of purification from such defilement by the sprinkling with the ashes of a red heifer, cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet.

It was considered a great calamity and disgrace to have one's body left unburied, a "food unto all birds of the heavens, and unto the beasts of the earth" (De 28:26; 2Sa 21:10; Ps 79:2; Isa 34:3; Jer 7:33, etc.). Thence is explained the merit of Rizpah (2Sa 21:10), and of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead, who protected or recovered and buried the mutilated bodies of Saul and his sons (1Sa 31:11-13; 2Sa 2:4-7; compare 1Ch 10:11,12).

See BURIAL.

Even the corpses of persons executed by hanging were not to remain on the tree "all night," "for he that is hanged is accursed of God; that thou defile not thy land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee for an inheritance" (De 21:23).

H. L. E. Luering

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Remains, dead body (of a human being), body, corse, carcass (used in disrespect).

Moby Thesaurus

ashes, barebones, bean pole, beanstalk, body, bones, broomstick, cadaver, carcass, carrion, clay, clothes pole, corpus delicti, crowbait, dead body, dead man, dead person, decedent, dry bones, dust, earth, embalmed corpse, food for worms, lanky, late lamented, mortal remains, mummification, mummy, organic remains, rattlebones, relics, reliquiae, remains, shadow, skeleton, slim, spindlelegs, spindleshanks, stack of bones, stiff, stilt, tenement of clay, the dead, the deceased, the defunct, the departed, the loved one, twiggy, walking skeleton