potter's field

American  

noun

(sometimes initial capital letters)

1. a piece of ground reserved as a burial place for strangers and the friendless poor. Matthew 27:7.

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potter's field British  

noun

1. a cemetery where the poor or unidentified are buried at the public expense

2. New Testament the land bought by the Sanhedrin with the money paid for the betrayal of Jesus (which Judas had returned to them) to be used as a burial place for strangers and the friendless poor (Acts 1:19; Matthew 27:7)

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Etymology

Origin of potter's field

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

potter's field

The Penn Museum was built on property that once adjoined the Blockley Almshouse, right between a potter’s field and Penn Medical School.

From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2022

Four years later, she still leaves flowers at the potter’s field each Memorial Day.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2021

The local council of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal group of which both are members, helped raise money for the interment and donated a marker for the potter’s field.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2021

Forget the potter’s field near the Bronx full of freshly dug graves.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 10, 2020

The bodies of the indigent dead were carted to the potter’s field and dumped, but no gravediggers were there to bury them.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy

Related Words

• garden
• graveyard
• mortuary
• tomb