sb. (and a.) Forms: α. 3 caroine, caronye, (charoine), 4–5 caroigne, -oygne, -oyne, 5 karoyne, -oigne; β. 4 caraing, 4–5 careyn(e, kareyne, 4–6 carayne, 5 caranye, 5–6 careine, 6 caraine, carrayne, -eyne, karreine, 6–7 carraine; γ. 4 karyn, 4–6 caren, caryn(e, 6 carrine, 6–7 carren, carring, 7 carran; δ. 4 karyun, 4–6 cariune, caryon(e, 4–8 carion, 5 caryonne, 5–6 caryen, carien, carrien, carryon, cariong, 6–7 carian, 6– carrion. [ME. caronye, caroine, a. ONF. caro·nië, later caroine, caroigne, in central OF. charoigne (mod.F. charogne, and in other sense carogne, Picard carone, carongne) = Pr. caronha, It. carogna, Sp. carroña, pointing to a Romanic type *carōnia, supposed to be a deriv. of caro flesh, but not regularly formed on the stem carn- The phonetic history of the English β. and δ. forms is obscure.]
A. sb.
† 1. A dead body; a corpse or carcass. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 84. Þe bacbitare … bekeð mid his blake bile o cwike charoines as þe þet is þes deofles corbin of helle.
1297. R. Glouc., 265. [They] slowe … eyȝte hondred & fourty men, & her caronyes [v.r. caroines] to drowe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22906. Ded þar gun his [a lion’s] caroigne [v.r. carion, caroyne, careyn] li.
c. 1308. Pol. Songs (1839), 203. A vilir carning nis ther non.
1382. Wyclif, Hebr. iii. 17. Whos careyns ben cast down in desert.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1157. The careyne [v.r. careyn, caroyne, karoigne, caroigne] in the busk with throte ycorue.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 61. Caranye or careyn, cadaver.
1494. Fabyan, V. cxxiv. 102. Ye cource of the riuer was let by the multitude of the caryens or dede bodyes.
1590. L. Lloyd, Diall Daies, Oct., 51. The raven … returned not, but fed upon the carrens.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., I. I. xx. Dogs which … eat the Carrens.
1718. Free-thinker, No. 47. 342. The Raven … stay’d to prey upon the Carrions of the Dead.
1763. C. Johnston, Reverie, II. 235. They all flocked about him, croaking like so many ravens about a carrion.
† b. = Applied to a dead man or corpse that ‘walks’ or returns to earth. Obs.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (1840), 143. Blissid Austyn the careyn gan compelle, ‘In Jhesu name … What that thu art trewly for to telle.’
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 174/3. Thenne the caryon broughte hym thyder to the graue.
2. Dead putrefying flesh of man or beast; flesh unfit for food, from putrefaction or inherently.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6544. Þo ne vond he atte laste Noȝt of hom bote caroyne.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter cxlvi. 10. Þe deuyl … fedis þaim wiþ karyun.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1972. Caste vnto curres as caren to ete.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. vii. Whan a beast is tourned to careine.
c. 1510. More, Picus, Wks. 25. Vile carein and wretched wormes meate.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr. (1619), 698/2. The wormes in carring.
1791. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Remonstr., Wks. 1812, II. 457. Like flies in Carrion.
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 127. The vulture … feeds on putrid carrion.
† b. ? = Death. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, IV. xxxiii. Þerof cometh tweie manere of careyns, for we beeþ i-slowe wiþ wepoun, oþer we beeþ adreent. [Hence 1494 in Fabyan.]
1481. Caxton, Myrr., I. v. 18. They come the sooner to their ende and to carayne.
3. transf. Used (contemptuously) of a living human body; cf. CARCASS (? obs.). † b. The fleshly nature of man, ‘the flesh’ in the Pauline sense (obs.).
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIV. 331. Ne noyther sherte ne shone … To keure my caroigne.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, xxvii. (1868), 39. To aorne suche a carion as is youre body.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W.), I. xxxv. 31 a. To leue thy careyne and folowe Ihesu Cryste.
1549. Compl. Scot., xvii. 154. Our carions ande corporal natur, and carnal origyne, is baytht vile ande infekkit.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 38. Shy. My owne flesh and blood to rebell. Sol. Out vpon it old carrion, rebels it at these yeeres.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Demerara, ii. 27. Much good may your tender mercies do your carrion.
† 4. Used (contemptuously) of a living person, as no better than carrion. Obs.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), x. § 1. It were better for a woman to be barren Than to bring forth a vile wicked carren.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 130. Priests and Cowards, and men Cautelous, old feeble Carrions.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 15 Sept. Pegg Kite … will be … a troublesome carrion to us executors.
† 5. Used of animals: sometimes app. in sense ‘noxious beast,’ ‘vermin’; sometimes merely ‘poor, wretched, or worthless beast.’ Obs.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 142. The euill creatures ben wors than serpentes, lyons or caraynes.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 119. Daws ar carren.
1573. Tusser, Husb., xvi. (1878), 35. Let carren and barren be shifted awaie, for best is the best, whatsoeuer ye paie.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., I. vi. The beasts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes. Ibid., I. viii. Having shewed you the most offensive carrions that belong to our Wildernesse.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, I. xix. (1640), 227. They [dogs and monkeys] be paltry carrions.
6. fig. Anything vile or corrupt; † corrupt mass; ‘garbage,’ ‘filth.’
1524. S. Fish, Supplic. Begg., 18. Declaring suche an horrible carayn of euyll ageinst the ministres of iniquite.
1597. 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass., V. i. 1455. I woulde prove it upon that carrion of thy witt.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1873), I. 21. Flunkyism, falsity and other carrion ought to be buried!
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Sol., Courage, Wks. (Bohn), III. 113. Melancholy sceptics with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xxiii. 402, note. Roman fashionable society hated Cæsar, and any carrion was welcome to them which would taint his reputation.
b. attrib. passing into adj.
7. Consisting of, or pertaining to, corrupting flesh. (Usually with some notion of contempt.)
a. 1535. More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 101. No man findeth fault, but carrieth his carien corse into ye quere, and … burieth ye body boldly at the hie alter.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 77. A stincking Foule carrayne sauoure.
1613. Rowlands, More Knaves, E.
| Like to the body of some carion beast, | |
| Whereon the Rauens and the Crows doe feast. |
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 454. The carrion-remains should be entombed only in the bowels of vultures and dogs.
† b. As an epithet of Death personified; also of Charon. Obs.
1566. Adlington, Apuleius, 61 a–b. Deliuer to carraine Charon one of the halfepens (whiche thou bearest) for thy passage.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Q. Cordila, xlvii. 4. By hir elbowe carian death for me did watch.
1576. Parad. Daynty Dev. (N.). Seeing no man then can death escape … We ought not feare his carraine shape.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. vii. 63. A carrion death, Within whose emptie eye there is a written scroule.
8. Applied in contempt to the living human body, as no better than carrion (cf. 3).
1537. Surr. Northampton Priory, in Prance, Addit. Narr. Pop. Plot (1679), 36. In continual ingurgitations and farcyngs of our carayne Bodies.
1563. Homilies, II. Excess Appar. (1859), 316. Why pamperest thou that carrion flesh so high…?
1577. Stanyhurst, Desc. Irel., in Holinshed, VI. 14. By the imbalming of their carian soules with the sweet and sacred flowers of holie writ.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. i. 71. For euery scruple Of her contaminated carrion weight.
9. † a. Carrion-lean, skeleton-like. Obs. b. Rotten; vile, loathsome; expressing disgust.
1565. Harding, Confut. Apol. II. xiv. 104 b. Ye will haue your spirituall bankettes so leane and carreine.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong., Eslance, as chevaux eslancez, carren horses.
1645–6. Evelyn, Diary, 28 Jan. My base, unlucky, stiffnecked trotting carrion mule.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxii. § 3. 79. Mounted on horses, or to say better, on lean carrion Tits that were nothing but skin and bone.
1826. in W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 82. The foul, the stinking, the carrion baseness, of the fellows that call themselves ‘country gentlemen.’
1867. N. & Q., Ser. III. XI. 32/2. Then she called me all sorts o’ carrion names.
C. Comb. a. attributive with sense ‘having to do with, feeding on carrion,’ as carrion-bird, -chafer, -fly, -hawk, -kite, -raven, -vulture; b. objective and instrumental, as carrion-feeder, -nosing ppl. adj., -strewn pa. pple.; c. similative, as carrion-like adj. or adv., -scented ppl. adj. Also carrion-flower, a name for the genus Stapelia, also for Smilax herbacea, from the scent of their blossoms; † carrion-lean a., lean as a wasting corpse or skeleton; fig. meager, very deficient; † carrion-row, a place where inferior meat or offal was sold. Also CARRION CROW.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, III. 137. Neither dogs, nor *carrion-birds, would touch them … so long as the pestilence lasted.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), II. xxiv. 386. The *carrion-chafers, and others of the lamellicorn beetles.
1855. J. F. Johnston, Chem. Com. Life, I. 332. The Stapelias are called *carrion-flowers because of the disagreeable putrid odours they exhale.
1852. Thoreau, Summer (1884), 1/23. The Smilax herbacea, carrion flower, a rank green vine…. It smells exactly like a dead rat in the wall, and apparently attracts flies like carrion.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 114. The Oak, Ask, Woodcock, *Carion [printed Canon] or Down-hill-fly. Comes on about the sixteenth of May.
1796. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Sat., Wks. 1812, III. 395. Court-sycophants, the Carrion-flies.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. IV. i. 241. Larvæ of the carrion fly.
1581. T. Howell, Deuises (1879), 234. Art thou so fond, with *carren kyte to haunt.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apophth., 245 b. Because it was so *caren leane.
1554. J. Procter trans. Vincentius, To Rdr. How owgle and carrion-lean ye are to se.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 135. So carrion leane in the knowledge of Scriptures.
1602. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 74. It is better to haue a declaration too copious then carion-leane.
1710. Brit. Apollo, III. 18. 2/1. He is so Carrion-lean.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, viii. 189. It maketh them *carran-like leane.
1878. Tennyson, Q. Mary, IV. iii. 171. The *carrion-nosing mongrel.
1589. Cooper, Admon., 140. As *carren Rauens flye … to stinking carcasses.
1728. Swift, Answ. Memorial, Wks. 1755, V. II. 173. The district in the several markets, called *carrion-row.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., ii. The huge *carrion vulture floated past him.
