adipocere
[ad-uh-poh-seer]
- a waxy substance produced by the decomposition of dead animal bodies in moist burial places or under water.
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Origin of adipocere
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for adipocere
Historical Examples
The brain was considerable in quantity, but changed to a state of adipocere resembling ointment of a dark brown hue.
Norfolk AnnalsCharles Mackie
"Then you'll be buried in Kensal Green and turn into adipocere with the others," said Torpenhow.
The Works of Rudyard Kipling: One Volume EditionRudyard Kipling
The autopsy on the exhumed body of Perrotte Mace was inconclusive, owing to the condition of adipocere.
She Stands AccusedVictor MacClure
There was not a trace of adipocere—the peculiar waxy soap that forms in bodies that decay in water or in a damp situation.
The Vanishing ManR. Austin Freeman
He is the first to observe and describe that curious product of the decomposition of flesh known to modern chemists as adipocere.
adipocere
- a waxlike fatty substance formed during the decomposition of corpsesNontechnical name: grave-wax
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Word Origin
C19: via French from New Latin adiposus fat (see adipose) + French cire wax
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
adipocere
(ăd′ə-pō-sîr′)- A brown, fatty, waxlike substance that forms on dead animal tissue in response to moisture.lipocere
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.