cremate
verbUS /ˈkɹimeɪt/ · UK /kɹɪˈmeɪt/
Etymology First attested in 1889; borrowed from Latin cremātus, perfect passive participle of cremō (“to burn to ashes; to cremate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
1
To burn something to ashes.
2
To incinerate a dead body (as an alternative to burial).
- I want to be cremated when I die.
- “You didn’t bury Dad. You burned him.” “We cremated him, Benny. For humans, the word is cremated. And we chose to do that because that’s what they do in Japan.”2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), page 422:
- Derived terms
- cremains, cremator, crematory, incremate, noncremated, uncremated
- Related terms
- cremation, crematorium