potter's field

noun

, (sometimes initial capital letters)

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

potter's field

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)

Word History and Origins

Origin of potter's field¹

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

Since the Whigs have the town again tis thought fitting to restore it to its old resting place in the Potters Field.

From Project Gutenberg

The four bodies were taken away in an express wagon and buried in the Potters field.

From Project Gutenberg

And you were dead in a potters field before your sixteenth birthday.

From Project Gutenberg

And they took counsel, and bought with them the potters field, to bury strangers in.

From Project Gutenberg

A third of the way back, in this potters field of dead-and-gone laughter, a man was hunched in a despondent posture.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• garden
• graveyard
• mortuary
• tomb