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

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

From Seattle Times • Dec. 7, 2021

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

To stave off a secondary public health emergency, any bodies left unclaimed for 14 days were, for a time, being buried at a potter’s field on Hart Island in the Bronx.

From New York Times • Apr. 30, 2020

Mr. Collins caught the fever, and a few days later he joined the rest of his family members in the crowded potter’s field.

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