CORPSE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Corpse

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/kɔrps/ Listen

noun

Corpse n.

A human body in general, whether living or dead; sometimes contemptuously. (Obs.) Note: Formerly written (after the French form) corps. See Corps, n., 1.

The dead body of a human being; used also Fig. "He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet."

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.

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Etymology of 'Corpse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Corpse" Quotes from Famous Books

... whole kingdom mourned his death, for he was in the freshness of his youth, being but twenty-four years of age, and had proved himself a gallant and high-minded cavalier. A melancholy group collected about his (2) corpse on the bloody height of Albohacen: the knights of Calatrava mourned him as a commander; the cavaliers who were encamped on the height lamented him as their companion-in-arms in a service of peril; while the count de Urena grieved over him with the ...

— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving

... not be possible for any to describe how those few words turned that mourning into joy—into exaltation—into frenzy; and how a storm of huzzas burst out and swept down the streets in every direction and woke those corpse-like multitudes to vivid life and action and turmoil in a moment. The soldiers broke from the crowd and came flocking to our standard, and many of the citizens ran and got pikes and halberds and joined us. As we moved on, our numbers increased steadily, and the hurrahing ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... gentleman, sir. caballo horse. cabana cabin, hut. cabello hair. caber to be contained, find room, —— duda to be doubtful. cabeza head. cabo chief, leader, corporal, end, stem, cape. cabra goat. cabrero goatherd. cada each, every; —— cual each one. cadaver m. corpse. cadena f. chain. caer to fall; vr. to fall; —— en algo to understand. cafe m. coffee, coffee-house. caid (Arabic) commander of a fort. calabacera pumpkin vine. calabaza pumpkin. calabozo ...

— Novelas Cortas • Pedro Antonio de Alarcon

... the coarse language of his poor old uncle. The rich brother suspects that the sailor has broken this rule, and is reviling him for his ingratitude, when suddenly he discovers that he is abusing a corpse. The old sailor's heart is broken at last; and his brother repents too late. He tries to comfort his remorse by cross-examining the boy, who was the ...

— Hours in a Library - New Edition, with Additions. Vol. II (of 3) • Leslie Stephen

... among men, but if the truth must be spoken, the loss of the boy has drawn bitter tears from me in the darkness of night, and in the solitude of the Lagunes. I lay many weeks, Signori, less a man than a corpse, and when I got back again to my nets and my toil, I did not withhold my son from the call of the Republic. He went in my place to meet the infidel—a service from which he never came back. This was the duty of men who had grown in experience, and who were not ...

— The Bravo • J. Fenimore Cooper

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