[a. L. cadāver dead body, perhaps f. cad-ĕre to fall. So F. cadavre.] A dead body, esp. of man; a corpse. (Now chiefly in technical lang.)
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. ii. (1495), 187. Careyne hath that name of cadauare of cadere . to falle.]
c. 1500. Noble Life, I. xxxv. Zelio is a beste … it abydeth gladly in places wher as people be buryed, And it eteth the cadauers or wormes.
1524. Will of J. Terry (Somerset Ho.). I John Terry of Norwich … commende … my body to be Cadaver … to be buried.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, lx. 18. Beware of … dead cadavers, or caryn.
1605. Davies, Wittes Pilgrim., ii. Who euer came From Death, to Life? Who can Cadaueres raise?
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1725), I. 186. Time was when … the cadavers of the greatest emperors were burnt to ashes.
1874. Roosa, Dis. Ear (ed. 2), 19. Anatomical investigations on the human cadaver.
b. A skeleton.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., 91. Death’s heads … and fleshless cadavers.
