corpsey

English

Etymology

corpse +‎ -y

Adjective

corpsey (comparative more corpsey, superlative most corpsey)

1. Characteristic of or associated with a corpse.
   • 1899, Alan Dale, His Own Image: A Novel, page 228:

     Their aspect was corpsey, and she wondered how they could ever have entertained her.

   • 1903, Alice Hegan Rice, Lovey Mary, page 62:

     "You do, too,” said Miss Hazy; “ it keeps you from lookin' so corpsey."

   • 1918, Irving Crump, Conscript 2989: Experience of a Drafted Man, page 12:

     And when they saw us all, white and corpsey looking and more or less unsteady on our legs, line up in front of the barracks and march off under our Second Lieutenant, the groans and sorry faces they feigned were enough to make one's blood run cold.

   • 2019, Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs: Big questions from tiny mortals about death, page 39:

     Your body is not going to sit bolt upright on its own corpsey power.

Noun

corpsey (plural corpseys)

1. (informal, irreverent) A dead body.
   • 1856, William Shakespeare, Charles Knight, The Stratford Shakspere - Volume 4, page 30:

     Not a flower, not a flower sweet, On my black coffin let there be strown; Not a friend, not a friend greet My poor corpsey where my bones shall be thrown.

   • 1910, Peter Hampson Ditchfield, The Parson's Pleasance, page 182:

     Taint no odds to corpseys whether 'tis wet or dry.

   • 2019, Henry Wallace Phillips, Plain Mary Smith: A Romance of Red Saunders:

     Pedro smote himself upon with his clenched fist. "H'run I shall not," says he. "Thees store can only be obtain by making the es-step over my corpsey."

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