v. [ad. F. exhume-r, ad. med.L. exhum-āre (13th c. in Du Cange), f. ex- out + hum-us ground.]
1. trans. To dig out or remove (something buried) from beneath the ground.
1783. Watson, Philip III. (L.). More than a dozen bodies were thus unnecessarily exhumed.
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 101. It was not the manner of those days to exhume … the bodies of holy men.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 643. Bones that have been exhumed by the waters.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, 48. No less than 17 canoes had been … exhumed.
1872. Baker, Nile Tribut., viii. 112. The wild animals might have exhumed the body.
b. transf. and fig. To unearth, bring to light.
1819. Scott, Lett., 3 Oct. in Lockhart. I … go a day sooner to exhume certain old monuments of the Rutherfords at Jedburgh.
1865. Lecky, Ration., I. i. 104. The industry of modern antiquarians has exhumed two or three obscure works.
1866. Motley, Dutch Rep., III. iii. 403. The letters of the royal assassin … were exhumed.
2. To remove the overlying soil from. rare.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 31. When we exhume an old land-surface the remains of Mammals may be found in tolerable plenty.
Hence Exhumed ppl. a. (in quots. fig.).
1840. Gladstone, Ch. Princ., 19–20. They will give to those, as it were, exhumed verities, a degree of weight and prominence beyond that, which they possess in the scripturally adjusted system of Christian doctrine.
1878. H. M. Stanley, Dark Cont., II. xii. 356. It was strange with what poor wits the aborigines of these new and exhumed regions credited us.
