corpse
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: 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.
Inflected forms:
form: corpses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: corps
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: corse
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: corpses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: corpsing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: corpsed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: corpsed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: corps
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: corse
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal.
pos: noun
examples: 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, […]
gloss: The dead body of any animal with flesh; the dead body of a vertebrate; a carcass.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A human body in general, whether living or dead.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
derogatory
sometimes
gloss: To laugh uncontrollably during a performance.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
slang
examples: 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 tea-party scene which took place between Rupert, David Parfitt, Piers Flint-Shipman and I, was too much.
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.
gloss: To cause another actor to do this.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
Synonyms: anatomy
body
cadaver
carcass
carrion
corpse
corse
DB
dog meat
dust
lich
offal
relics
reliquiae
remains
stiff
worm food
Related words: corporate
corporation
corporeal
corps
corpulent
corpus
ghost
manes
shade
spirit
undead
vampire
zombie
cemetery
death
interment
Derived words: 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
Translations: