cremation

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“
The greed of the priest who performs the last rite and who prepares the relatives for the cremation is an unlovely sight.

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Definitions (3)

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  1. The act or custom of cremating; a burning, as of the dead; incineration; incremation. The burning of the dead was common in antiquity, the corpse being imperfectly consumed on a funeral pyre, and the ashes and bones afterward placed in an urn. (See cinerary urn, under cinerary.) The revival of the practice in a more efficient manner has been advocated in recent times for sanitary reasons, and to some extent effected. Various methods of cremation have been proposed, the great difficulty being to consume the body without permitting the escape of noxious exhalations, and without defiling the ashes with foreign substances. In W. Siemens's apparatus (a modification of the plan of Sir Henry Thompson) the body is exposed to the combined action of highly heated air and combustible gases, so as to be entirely consumed without foreign admixture, while the furnace is so constructed that no noxious effluvium escapes from it. The Mexicans practiced cremation; and when men killed in battle were missing, they made figures of them, and after honouring these, burnt them and buried the ashes. H. Spencer, Prin. of Sociol., § 156.

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Examples (50)

  • The average cost for a cremation is between $3,000 to $5,000. —  Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com
  • In Dorset the relative interments, by cremation or otherwise, is four out of five, while in Cornwall cremation is almost universal Almost without exception, however, the Disc Barrows contain only cremated remains. —  Stonehenge Today and Yesterday
  • Biblicum. Hyde accounts for the Persians who embraced the religion of the Magi not having adopted the two contrivances of corporal dissolution prevalent among civilised nations--cremation or burning, and simple inhumation--by the superstitious reverence with which they regarded the four elements. —  Notes and Queries, Number 42, August 17, 1850
  • She opened the top of the range and, as the cremation was going on, I continued my comments. —  Adopting an Abandoned Farm
  • After the process was completed, what remained unburned was covered with earth and a mound formed A.S. Tiffany[55] describes what he calls a cremation-furnace, discovered within seven miles of Davenport, Iowa Mound seven miles, below the city, a projecting point known as Eagle Point. —  A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians
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Etymologies (1)

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  1. from Latin crematio(n-), from cremare, past participle crematus, burn: see cremate.
 

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