corpse
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- corse (obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
From earlier corse, from Old French cors, from Latin corpus (“body”). Displaced native English likam from Old English līċ. The ⟨p⟩ was inserted due to the original Latin spelling. Doublet of corps and corpus. The verb sense derives from the notion of being unable to control laughter while acting as dead body.
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (US) (file) - (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɔːps/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɔɹps/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈkoːps/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ps
Noun[edit]
corpse (plural corpses)
- A dead body.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:corpse
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:corpse.
- (archaic, sometimes derogatory) A human body in general, whether living or dead.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:body
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
dead body
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Verb[edit]
corpse (third-person singular simple present corpses, present participle corpsing, simple past and past participle corpsed)
- (intransitive, slang, of an actor) To laugh uncontrollably during a performance.
- 1989, Kenneth Branagh, Beginning, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 94:
- The rest of the day and the week were spent blocking and learning the lines. The only drama was the predictable one of being ticked off for corpsing. Rupert was quite as bad as me when it came to giggling and the tea-party scene which took place between Rupert, David Parfitt, Piers Flint-Shipman and I, was too much.
- 1993, John Banville, Ghosts:
- There were still moments when she would halt suddenly, like an actor stranded in the middle of the stage, lines forgotten, staring goggle-eyed and making fish-mouths...Corpsing: that was the word.
- (transitive, slang, of an actor) To cause another actor to do this.
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *krep-
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English terms with audio links
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)ps
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)ps/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- English derogatory terms
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English slang
- English terms with quotations
- English transitive verbs
- en:Acting
- en:Death
- en:People