Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Dead and decaying flesh.
- adj. Of or similar to dead and decaying flesh.
- adj. Feeding on such flesh.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A dead body; a corpse; a carcass; flesh.
- n. A mere carcass: used of a living person, as a term of contempt.
- n. The dead and putrefying body or flesh of animals; flesh so corrupted as to be unfit for food.
- Dead and putrefying, as a carcass.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The dead and putrefying body or flesh of an animal; flesh so corrupted as to be unfit for food.
- n. A contemptible or worthless person; -- a term of reproach.
- adj. Of or pertaining to dead and putrefying carcasses; feeding on carrion.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the dead and rotting body of an animal; unfit for human food
Etymologies
- Middle English careine, from Anglo-Norman, from Vulgar Latin *carōnia, from Latin carō, flesh; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“I soak up a few fingers of a bottle of mescal and sweat a lot at a table in the rear of the cantina with my back to the wall, and I watch the shadows of the zopilotes heaving past, the mangy black vultures that seem to be in the city's official employ to remove carrion from the streets, and I think mostly about what crybabies Wilson and Bryan, his paunchy windbag of a Secretary of State, have turned out to be.”
“It's bald for one reason only, no feathers, because when it gets down to carrion, which is a dead animal they start eating, bacteria cannot grow on its head, cannot grow in the feathers.”
“So they're being forced to eat birds, carrion, which is dead animals.”
“The woman had pulled the chair to the other side of the hearth and sat watching him as one would a boar feeding on carrion, that is to say with a certain measure of fascinated disgust.”
Cold Mountain
“I truly give in to despair at times, that deep, futureless pit of despair that the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins called carrion comfort.”
Carrion Comfort
“Its leaves, when bruised, emit a strong smell like that of carrion, which is very loathsome.”
“Great numbers of a species of vultures, commonly called carrion crows by the sailors (_vultur aura_), were seen upon this island, and probably feed on young seal-cubs, which either die in the birth, or which they take an opportunity to seize upon.”
“Commonly known as a carrion flower or a "corpse flower," the plant started blooming at the museum over the weekend.”
“Due to the off putting odor, these are also called carrion flowers.”
“A great many species of fly feed, in their larval or maggot form, on what Hall delicately calls "carrion".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘carrion’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Words that make me want to drink single malt sc...
You know that feeling when you hear a word that you just want to roll it around in your mouth, experiment with it, find its edges and texture. Words that you want to clink around in a glass with so...
melt, agronomy, cartilage, vexatious, scintillating, carrion, caryopsis, crystallite, haulm, alegar, maltster, carpel and 31 more...
milosrdenstvi Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee...
-Gerard Manley Hopkins May 5, 2009
darqueau does wisdom perhaps appear on earth as a raven, inspired by the smell of carrion?
Nietzsche Jul 25, 2008
sionnach The kind of baggage that vultures bring with them when flying. Nov 3, 2007