resurrection man

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

resurrection (the act of rising from the dead and becoming alive again) + man

Noun

[edit]

resurrection man (plural resurrection men)

  1. (euphemistic, historical) A man who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves; a graverobber.
    • 1781, “R. King”, in Compl. Mod. London Spy, section 106:
      Persons (under the name of resurrection-men) continue their business, getting from 1 guinea to 5 or 6, according to the value set upon the corpse they take up.
    • 1910, Encyclopædia Britannica, I. 937/2:
      Earlier exhumations seem to have caused very little popular concern;... but later... the trade of ‘resurrection man’ became commoner, and attracted the lowest dregs of the vicious classes.

Synonyms

[edit]