corpus vile
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of corpus vile
literally: worthless body
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even the student body was regarded not as boys and girls to be taught, but as a corpus vile, a collection of human guinea pigs tolerated for experimental purposes.
From Time Magazine Archive
No good book ought ever to be considered a mere corpus vile for rhetorical praxis.
From College Teaching Studies in Methods of Teaching in the College by Klapper, Paul
Fiat experimentum in corpore vili, he would have said had he been conversant with the Classics, without much consideration for the corpus vile.
From Mr. Meeson's Will by Haggard, Henry Rider
Australia is the corpus vile on which England makes her legislative experiments.
From Town Life in Australia by Twopeny, Richard Ernest Nowell
I could not understand his proceedings at all, and at the best I did not relish playing the corpus vile to his magical experiments.
From Allan's Wife by Haggard, Henry Rider
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
