CARCASS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does carcass mean? 

• CARCASS (noun)
  The noun CARCASS has 1 sense:

1. the dead body of an animal especially one slaughtered and dressed for food

  Familiarity information: CARCASS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CARCASS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The dead body of an animal especially one slaughtered and dressed for food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

carcase; carcass

Hypernyms ("carcass" is a kind of...):

body; dead body (a natural object consisting of a dead animal or person)

 Context examples 

I told them we wanted live men, not carcasses.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Nothing ever rode the Gytrash: it was always alone; and goblins, to my notions, though they might tenant the dumb carcasses of beasts, could scarce covet shelter in the commonplace human form.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So they finally departed, grumbling greatly that in all probability, if the thing were so, he had neglected to cut up the carcasses.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“Have you heard the story? What were these villains after but money? What do they care for but money? For what would they risk their rascal carcasses but money?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Stand by me and we’ll save her, if I have to leave my carcass in Charlington Wood.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I tell you straight, I wouldn’t risk my carcass on that ice for all the gold in Alaska.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

And your friend the secretary, humbly desiring to be heard again, in answer to what the treasurer had objected, concerning the great charge his majesty was at in maintaining you, said, that his excellency, who had the sole disposal of the emperor’s revenue, might easily provide against that evil, by gradually lessening your establishment; by which, for want of sufficient for you would grow weak and faint, and lose your appetite, and consequently, decay, and consume in a few months; neither would the stench of your carcass be then so dangerous, when it should become more than half diminished; and immediately upon your death five or six thousand of his majesty’s subjects might, in two or three days, cut your flesh from your bones, take it away by cart-loads, and bury it in distant parts, to prevent infection, leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to posterity.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

—it may be a very beautiful spirit that will go soaring up into the blue from that ugly carcass.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an inch; but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where it lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But if I were sure they were raving—as I am morally certain one, at least, of them is down with fever—I should leave this camp, and at whatever risk to my own carcass, take them the assistance of my skill.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)