morgue

[ mawrg ]

noun

1. a place in which bodies are kept, especially the bodies of victims of violence or accidents, pending identification or burial.
2. a reference file of old clippings, mats, books, etc., in a newspaper office.
3. the room containing such a reference file.
4. any place, as a room or file, where records, information, or objects are kept for unexpected but possible future use.
5. such records, information, or objects.

morgue

¹

/ mɔːɡ /

noun

1. another word for mortuary
2. informal.
   a room or file containing clippings, files, etc, used for reference in a newspaper

morgue

²

/ mɔrɡ /

noun

1. superiority; haughtiness

Word History and Origins

Origin of morgue¹

1815–25; < French; name of building in Paris housing unidentified dead bodies

Word History and Origins

Origin of morgue¹

C19: from French la Morgue, a Paris mortuary

Example Sentences

In October 1918, Philadelphia witnessed 2,600 deaths in a single week and 4,500 in the week that followed, leaving a gruesome scene at the city’s only morgue.

From Washington Post

“If you can keep people out of the hospitals and out of morgues, that is of tremendous value,” he said.

From Washington Post

This weekend, the state’s National Guard deployed a 36-member team to assist in morgues in El Paso, as the state reported 13,763 new cases on Saturday, according to The Post’s coronavirus tracker.

From Washington Post

You’ll be well and firmly invested in this book once you get through that, and exhausted, as though you just finished watching a Kubrick movie with a dream sequence set in a full morgue, and there’s more story left.

From Washington Blade

Those who can’t afford to do so end up with a debt to morgues.

From Voice of San Diego

So far, the mystery man in the morgue has not been identified, and neither has Mr. Douli.

From The Daily Beast

In London it is located in the Duveen Gallery where half the extant marbles sit under white light as if in a morgue.

From The Daily Beast

Another incident, in January, involved a Kenyan man, Paul Mutora, who woke up in the morgue 15 hours after being pronounced dead.

From The Daily Beast

Afterwards, the bodies were taken to the morgue to positively identify them.

From The Daily Beast

But five years and a morgue-full of D.O.A. sitcoms later, ABC has found its new modern family.

From The Daily Beast

Take all the little fishergirls away from Paris—from the Quartier Latin—and you would find chaos and a morgue!

From Project Gutenberg

Ward hesitated, as though doubtful about leaving this unusual person alone in the morgue, but finally assented.

From Project Gutenberg

If I were a woman I would prefer to lie stretched out at the morgue than be the joint possessor of that man's ill-gotten wealth.

From Project Gutenberg

In the morgue-like silence her silvery voice rang with startling clearness.

From Project Gutenberg

I went back to the Morgue and made some inquiries of the attendant there.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• funeral home