cremate
[kree-meyt]
- to reduce (a dead body) to ashes by fire, especially as a funeral rite.
- to consume by fire; burn.
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Origin of cremate
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cremation
Contemporary Examples
Then Heal STL was burned down Monday like a moribund body for cremation.
Cammue, whose agency has now performed a thorough assessment of the current cremation process at Boystown, is extremely concerned.
"Cremation is not necessary to have safe and dignified burial," Tarik Jasarevic tells me.
Last November, for example, I managed to track down a celebrated tantric at a cremation ground near Birbhum in West Bengal.
Historical Examples
For an instant Azuba stared, white-faced, at the cremation of the bonnet.
Cap'n Dan's DaughterJoseph C. Lincoln
In Siam cremation is the general way of disposing of the dead.
Travels in the Far EastEllen Mary Hayes Peck
It is but seldom that a cremation is not in progress at the burning ghat.
East of SuezFrederic Courtland Penfield
It avoids even the fumes that are given off in cremation of the dead.
The Critic in the OrientGeorge Hamlin Fitch
The cremation, my dear, has nothing in truth to do with the Fixed Period.
The Fixed PeriodAnthony Trollope
cremate
- (tr) to burn up (something, esp a corpse) and reduce to ash
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Word Origin
C19: from Latin cremāre
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cremation
n.
1620s, from Latin cremationem (nominative crematio), noun of action from past participle stem of cremare "to burn, consume by fire" (also used of the dead), from PIE *krem-, extended form of root *ker- "heat, fire" (see carbon).
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cremate
v.
1874, a back-formation from cremation. Related: Cremated; cremating.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper