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carcass

nounattested in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈkɑːkəs//
  • United States//ˈkɑɹkəs//

The body of a dead animal, especially a vertebrate or other animal having flesh.

noun

  1. 1

    The body of a dead animal, especially a vertebrate or other animal having flesh.

    Plate 31, figure B shows a desiccated carcass in the ventral position with a sharp S curvature in the vertebral column. Such pronounced drying-out of a carcass probably happens only when it is quickly carried to a dry place and exposed to the strong rays of the sun.

    Despite all of the groups' experiences with leopards and carcasses in trees, neither the vervets nor the baboons gave alarm calls at the sight of the carcass alone.

    Instead, the majority of studies involve freezing the carcasses until time permits the analysis.

  2. 2

    The body of a slaughtered animal, stripped of unwanted viscera, etc.

    1961, D. M. Doty, John C. Pierce, Beef Muscle Characteristics as Related to Carcass Grade, Carcass Weight, and Degree of Aging, US Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin No. 1231, page 33, Lean flavor scores for this muscle were lower than those for ribeye, especially in Prime grade carcasses.

    The most important is the carcass but the liver, kidneys and, to a limited extent, various other visceral components also have value as food items.[…]For example, the carcasses from sheep and cattle have the head removed immediately after slaughter but in pigs this may be delayed until after chilling and further butchery.

    In some countries, there is still a significant trade in chicken carcasses that have been plucked, but not eviscerated, by the producer. Subsequently, the carcass may be eviscerated by a butcher or in the kitchen of the consumer.

  3. 3

    The body of a dead human, a corpse.

    And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d: / And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes, / Share equally the gold that bought their liues, / And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]

    And the carkeiſes of this people ſhall be meate for the fowles of the heauen, and for the beaſts of the earth, and none ſhall fray them away.

  4. 4

    slangThe body of a live person or animal.

    A Churliſh Envious Curr vvas gotten into a Manger, and there lay Growling and Snarling to keep the Horſes from their Provender. The Dog Eat None himſelf, and yet rather Ventur'd the Starving his Own Carcaſe then he would ſuffer any thing elfe to be the Better for't.

    "If you saw the care she takes over hoisting her beastly old carcass up and down those stairs, you could make a sure bet against her having another accident there."

  5. 5

    The framework of a structure, such as a cabinet, especially one not normally seen.

  6. 6

    An early incendiary ship-to-ship projectile consisting of an iron shell filled with saltpetre, sulphur, resin, turpentine, antimony and tallow with vents for flame.

Etymology

Dated from the late 13th Century C.E.; from Anglo-Norman carcois, possibly related to Old French charcois. Cognate with French carcasse. But cf. also Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬵𐬭𐬐𐬁𐬯𐬀 (kahrkās, “vulture”), and Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (klkʾs /⁠kargās⁠/, “vulture”), whence Persian کرکس (karkas, “vulture”).

Forms

plural
carcasses
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).