cadaver
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What is a cadaver? A cadaver is a dead body, especially a dead human body.The word cadaver is sometimes used interchangeably with the word corpse, but cadaver is especially used in a scientific context to refer to a body that is the subject of scientific study or medical use, such as one that will be dissected.It’s sometimes used as a modifier (adjective) in phrases that involve cadavers. For example, cadaver tissue is tissue that has been harvested from a donor body. A cadaver dog is a dog that has been specially trained to track the scent of dead bodies in searches for missing persons.Example: The cadavers are carefully preserved before they are prepared for dissection.
Related Words
See body.
Other Word Forms
- cadaveric adjective
Etymology
Origin of cadaver
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin cadāver dead body, corpse; akin to cadere to fall, perish ( decay, chance )
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.
Over the next century, more than 20 such disturbances broke out across the U.S.—in Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis and elsewhere—as demand for doctors, and cadavers, spiked in the quickly growing nation.
Authorities have deployed deputies, investigators, search-and-rescue resources and teams, drones, and cadaver dogs in the search for Olmos, the sheriff's office said.
From BBC
Searches from the air by helicopter and on the ground with a cadaver dog were unsuccessful, and it was feared the remains might not be recovered until the spring thaw.
From Los Angeles Times
A third group of six cadaver donors provided additional skin samples to strengthen the control group.
From Science Daily
“They brought in two cadaver dogs looking to see if anyone was still trapped under the rubble, and the dogs cleared everything,” Hurd said.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
