corpse
A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal.
Noun
- A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal.
- I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, / And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them, / I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, […] - 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard...
- The dead body of any animal with flesh; the dead body of a vertebrate; a carcass.
- Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so permanent in the body that it has been detected in the corpse of a cat eighty-four days after death. - 1885, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Poisons, Their...
- Near Smeinogorsk an octagonal tumulus has been found containing the corpse of a horse near a rectangular one with a human corpse, both within stone circles. - 1898, Friedrich Ratzel, The History of Mankind, volume III,...
- Nelson and I landed next to the half rotted corpse of a horse full of maggots. - 2005, J. C. Arlington, A Red Horse Rode Out, West Conshohoken, PA: Infinity Publishing, page 91:
- A human body in general, whether living or dead.
Origin
From Middle English, from earlier corse, from Old French cors, from Latin corpus (“body”). Displaced native English likam and lich. The ⟨p⟩ was inserted due to the original Latin spelling. Doublet of corps and corpus, and distantly of riff (via Proto-Indo-European). The verb sense derives from the notion of being unable to control laughter while acting as dead body.
Forms
Synonyms
anatomy body cadaver carcass carrion corpse corse DB dog meat dust lich offal relics reliquiae remains stiff worm food
Hyponyms
Related
corporate corporation corporeal corps corpulent corpus ghost manes shade spirit undead vampire zombie cemetery death interment
Derived
corpse camp corpse camper corpse candle corpse flower corpsefucker corpse-gate corpsehood corpse hounds corpseless corpselike corpse paint corpsepaint corpse plant corpse pose corpse powder corpser corpse reviver corpse road corpse run corpse-to-be corpsey corpsicle corpsy exquisite corpse
Verb
- To laugh uncontrollably during a performance.
- The rest of the day and the week were spent blocking and learning the lines. The only drama was the predictable one of being ticked off for corpsing. Rupert was quite as bad as me when it came to giggling and the...
- There were still moments when she would halt suddenly, like an actor stranded in the middle of the stage, lines forgotten, staring goggle-eyed and making fish-mouths...Corpsing: that was the word. - 1993, John Banville,...
- Poor Damian corpsed and almost forgot his next lines. The director gave him a terrific lecture, and Alan caught hell from stage management. - 1993, Bevan Amberhill, The Bloody Man, Mercury Press, →ISBN:
- To cause another actor to do this.