Dictionary

corpsy en · ADJ

Etymology

From corpse + -y.

Meanings

1. Resembling a corpse; resembling that of a corpse.
   • But I must acknowledge there was something truly corpsy in the solemnity with which he would “lay out” a clean shirt. 1866 December, J. W. Palmer, “My Heathen at Home”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 18, page 732:
   • Christmas Eve Father took us into town to see the shops lit up. Every lamp post had a fir tree tied to it—not corpsy old trees but fresh cut firs. 1942, Emily Carr, “Christmas”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:
   • How it came back to me! That peculiar feeling—it was only a feeling, you couldn't describe it as an activity—that we used to call 'Church'. The sweet corpsy smell, the rustle of Sunday dresses, the wheeze of the organ and the roaring voices […] 1939, George Orwell, chapter 4, in Coming Up for Air:

Forms