corpus vile

British  

/ ˈkɔːpəs ˈvaɪlɪ /

noun

1. a person or thing fit only to be the object of an experiment

---

Etymology

Origin of corpus vile

literally: worthless body

Example Sentences

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

I myself, to take a corpus vile, am very certain that I would not read the works of Comte through for any consideration whatever.

From Heretics by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)

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

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

Among induced apparitions may be reckoned the materialized forms of spiritual s�ances, which have a material basis of veils, false moustaches, wigs and the corpus vile of the medium.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 3 "Apollodorus" to "Aral" by Various