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

After an autopsy, Joseph was buried for the first time at a potter’s field in the city.

From Washington Post • Dec. 8, 2022

Calvary Catholic Cemetery — made a plan: Establish a potter’s field, gather the unclaimed dead and give them a proper burial.

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

In another, a body was sent to Hart Island — New York’s potter's field — to be buried without the family’s knowledge or approval.

From New York Times • Dec. 22, 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