# body snatcher
## English
### Alternative forms

* bodysnatcher, body-snatcher

### Etymology

From body + snatcher. Later use highly influenced by the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers and its repeated adaptation into film, wherein aliens begin replacing humans with pod people.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (General Australian):(file)

### Noun

body snatcher (plural body snatchers)
* (slang, humorous, derogatory, obsolete) One who makes arrests, such as a bailiff or policeman.
** 1778 August 19, Public Advertiser:They proved to be two of those Body-Snatchers, called hired Constables, who were patrolling the Fields.
** 1877, R. Rae, Newport, section 40:Look here, my body-snatchers, you have unlawfully abridged the liberty of one of the sons of the sovereign State of New York!
* One who abducts or controls another's body, such as a slaver, psychic, or human resources agent.
** 1852, B.R. Hall, Frank Freeman's Barber Shop, xiv. 252:A black woman told Carrie not to say master and missis, because you were body-snatchers and slave-drivers.
** 1894 September, Harper's Magazine, 581/2:Girls who can't let a man go by without reaching out for him. That's what I call them—body snatchers.
** 1961 June, Fortune, 129/1:McCulloch had no compunction about using these executive recruiting firms. They were, he knew, often derisively called ‘body snatchers’, ‘head hunters’, ‘flesh peddlers’, and ‘pirates’.
** 1994 August 9, “Newswire”, in Associated Press:South claims hundreds abducted by North Korea's ‘body snatchers’.
** 2000, C. Golden, Head Games, section 166:‘What are you looking at?’ ‘An alien body snatcher who stole my partner and took her place.’
* (historical) One who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves, a resurrection man.
** 1819, J. H. Vaux, “New Vocab. Flash Lang.”, in Memoirs:Body-snatcher, a stealer of dead bodies from churchyards; which are sold to the surgeons and students in anatomy.
** 1910, Encyclopædia Britannica, I. 937/2:So emboldened and careless did these body-snatchers become... that they no longer confined themselves to pauper graves.
* (in particular) A graverobber who steals bodies or body parts.
** 2008 March 19, Daily Record, Glasgow, section 9:The head of a ring of bodysnatchers who stole the bones of broadcaster Alistair Cooke pleaded guilty yesterday.
* (British, military, slang) A stretcher-bearer.
** 1917, General Buller, quotee, Military Medicine, volume 40, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 341:No men could have behaved more admirably than my Imperial bearer companies, or 'body snatchers,' as the men used to call them.
** 1951, Great Britain. Army. Royal Army Medical Corps, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, volumes 96-97, J. Bale, Sons & Danielson, Limited, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 410:Freezing conditions in the hills make essential the quick evacuation of wounded, and their regimental mates are full of praise for the sterling job done by the cheerful, tireless “body-snatchers” of the Battalion.
** 2011, Robert W. Mackay, Soldier of the Horse, TouchWood Editions, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 185:Tom dismounted and led Toby toward a group of men standing by a stack of stretchers. “Hey, you body snatchers,” he called out. “I have a wound that needs dressing.” He tied Toby to a stretcher.

#### Synonyms

* (alien) pod person
* (corpse-stealer) resurrection man, resurrectionist

#### Translations
### References

* Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "body snatcher, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2010.
* “body-snatcher”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.