cadaver
Americannoun
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Usage
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.
After the finding, additional search and rescue teams were called to the area, as well as four cadaver dogs, but officials said no further evidence was located.
From Los Angeles Times
Other cadavers have been discovered by chance, as Syrians sift through the rubble of bombed buildings and reclaim farmland disused during the war.
In the experiment, human blood was used in four different cadavers.
From BBC
The Chobot-Collier team never speaks to the authorities, or any police at all, save for the handlers of a cadaver dog used in a search for Theresa’s body, an effort launched on the flimsiest lead.
When Shelley wrote “Frankenstein,” Edinburgh had gained infamy as a site of murders and grave robberies that helped fuel a thriving trade in cadavers centered on the city’s laboratories and research hospitals.
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.
