Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Plural of obsequy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun plural See obsequy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Funeral rites.
  • noun see obsequy

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The funeral services were held on the 20th of February, and his obsequies were the largest Washington had ever seen, except those of the late Abraham Lincoln.

    History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 (of 2) Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens George Washington Williams

  • The poor gentleman was honorably interred; but the greatest triumph in his obsequies was the tears and cries of that poor demoiselle, who as openly displayed her feelings after his death as she had concealed them during his life, as if she would make amends for the wrong she had done him.

    The Heptameron of Margaret, Queen of Navarre 1855

  • Even as Mr Cameron was before the cameras expressing the ritual obsequies for a fallen colleague, other Tories were privately voluble that Dr Fox was "always a maverick", "a chancer", "committed the most dreadful errors of personal and political judgment" – in other words, the only conclusion we should draw from this affair is that Dr Fox was the author of his own demise.

    Dr Fox is not so rare a beast as Mr Cameron would have us think | Andrew Rawnsley 2011

  • Charles Dickens did not have a public funeral, but by giving Alfred one, I hope to convey to the reader how enormously famous (and almost worshipped) he was when he died; the scenes of public grief reflecting, perhaps, Princess Diana's modern-day obsequies.

    A Conversation with Gaynor Arnold, author of Girl in a Blue Dress 2010

  • One of the reasons Death of a President seemed so questionable was that real footage was redeployed with what might be taken as gloating coldness: news clips of the first lady and Dick Cheney in dark clothes at the funerals of Presidents Reagan and Ford was presented as their attendance at the state obsequies of Bush.

    The Taking of Prince Harry and the limits of TV drama Mark Lawson 2010

  • Supposing you never studied a contrary theory called "the risky shift", and can jettison all thoughts of tulip mania and the South Sea Bubble, not forgetting more recent memories of Princess Diana's obsequies, online bullying, Jedward and destructive Twitter mobs, Surowiecki's is an appealing proposal, nicely demonstrated by new pressure groups such as 38 Degrees, and indeed by Twitter, when the crowd is being witty, kind and constructive.

    This is a platform for hysteria rather than people power | Catherine Bennett 2011

  • With so many dead on the mountain, and the days already warming as spring began to turn to summer, the abbot could not risk waiting even a single day to begin the obsequies.

    Blood Ninja II Nick Lake 2010

  • Near her lay the other monks who had died, awaiting the moment—as prescribed by the traditional obsequies—when their bodies could be burned.

    Blood Ninja II Nick Lake 2010

  • With so many dead on the mountain, and the days already warming as spring began to turn to summer, the abbot could not risk waiting even a single day to begin the obsequies.

    Blood Ninja II Nick Lake 2010

  • Bart had not been given the obsequies of an officer.

    Aching for Always Gwyn Cready 2010

Comments

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  • Funeral services or preparations.

    February 2, 2008

  • Tends to be plural, doesn't it?

    November 13, 2008