potter's field
Americannoun
noun
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a cemetery where the poor or unidentified are buried at the public expense
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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)
Etymology
Origin of potter's field
First recorded in 1520–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.