corpse
nounEtymology
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.
Definitions
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, […]
The dead body of any animal with flesh
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.
- 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.
- Nelson and I landed next to the half rotted corpse of a horse full of maggots.
A human body in general, whether living or dead.
›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer
To laugh uncontrollably during a performance.
- 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.
- Poor Damian corpsed and almost forgot his next lines. The director gave him a terrific lecture, and Alan caught hell from stage management.
To cause another actor to do this.
The neighborhood
- synonymanatomy
- synonymbody
- synonymcadaver
- synonymcarcass
- synonymcarrion
- synonymcorpse
- synonymcorse
- synonymDB
- synonymdog meat
- synonymdust
- synonymlich
- synonymoffal
- neighborcorporate
- neighborcorporation
- neighborcorporeal
- neighborcorps
- neighborcorpulent
- neighborcorpus
- neighborghost
- neighbormanes
- neighborshade
- neighborspirit
- neighborundead
- neighborvampire
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, megacorpse, stinking corpse lily, the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral, walking corpse syndrome
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at corpse. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at corpse. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at corpse
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA