corpsey

adj, noun — 2 senses

corpsey

adj

Etymology From corpse + -y.

1

Characteristic of or associated with a corpse.

  • Their aspect was corpsey, and she wondered how they could ever have entertained her.1899, Alan Dale, His Own Image: A Novel, page 228:
  • "You do, too,” said Miss Hazy; “ it keeps you from lookin' so corpsey."1903, Alice Hegan Rice, Lovey Mary, page 62:
2 more examples
  • And when they saw us all, white and corpsey looking and more or less unsteady on our legs, line up in front of the barracks and march off under our Second Lieutenant, the groans and sorry faces they feigned were enough to make one's blood run cold.1918, Irving Crump, Conscript 2989: Experience of a Drafted Man, page 12:
  • Your body is not going to sit bolt upright on its own corpsey power.2019, Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs: Big questions from tiny mortals about death, page 39:

corpsey

noun

Etymology From corpse + -y.

1

Informal A dead body.

  • Not a flower, not a flower sweet, On my black coffin let there be strown; Not a friend, not a friend greet My poor corpsey where my bones shall be thrown.1856, William Shakespeare, Charles Knight, The Stratford Shakspere - Volume 4, page 30:
  • Taint no odds to corpseys whether 'tis wet or dry.1910, Peter Hampson Ditchfield, The Parson's Pleasance, page 182:
1 more example
  • Pedro smote himself upon with his clenched fist. "H'run I shall not," says he. "Thees store can only be obtain by making the es-step over my corpsey."2019, Henry Wallace Phillips, Plain Mary Smith: A Romance of Red Saunders:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.