Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A brown, fatty, waxlike substance that forms on dead animal tissues in response to moisture.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A soft unctuous or waxy substance, of a light-brown color, produced by the decomposition of animal matter when protected from the air, and under certain conditions of temperature and humidity. It consists chiefly of ammonium margarate, with an admixture of the margarates of potassium and calcium.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A soft, unctuous, or waxy substance, of a light brown color, into which the fat and muscle tissue of dead bodies sometimes are converted, by long immersion in water or by burial in moist places. It is a result of fatty degeneration.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
brown ,fatty ,waxy substance (fatty acids ) that forms ondead animal tissues in response tohydrolysis
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Much more rarely, the fetus is converted into a yellowish, greasy mass to which the term adipocere is applied.
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This greasy, sometimes waxy substance is known as adipocere, or grave wax.
Break No Bones Reichs, Kathy 2006
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Corpses of infants and overweight persons are particularly prone to adipocere transformation.
A Bit of Soap Heather McDougal 2009
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Grave wax (adipocere) tends to be a strange substance, smooth and, when it's had time, relatively hard and brittle (not always; it depends on the conditions).
A Bit of Soap Heather McDougal 2009
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Grave wax (adipocere) tends to be a strange substance, smooth and, when it's had time, relatively hard and brittle (not always; it depends on the conditions).
Archive 2009-06-01 Heather McDougal 2009
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Corpses of infants and overweight persons are particularly prone to adipocere transformation.
Archive 2009-06-01 Heather McDougal 2009
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Nora turned back to the body and studied the edges of the flesh where the right leg must have been submerged in water; the visible tendons and ligaments looked frayed, and she could see a layer of adipocere beneath the skin—ordinary body fat transformed into a yellowish, waxy material—a common feature of preserved remains.
FALSE MERMAID ERIN HART 2010
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Nora turned back to the body and studied the edges of the flesh where the right leg must have been submerged in water; the visible tendons and ligaments looked frayed, and she could see a layer of adipocere beneath the skin—ordinary body fat transformed into a yellowish, waxy material—a common feature of preserved remains.
FALSE MERMAID ERIN HART 2010
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“Enveloped in adipocere packing the basicranium, below the palate.”
Spider Bones Kathy Reichs 2010
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OMG–I totally thought that was a corpse converted to adipocere.
wackyvorlon commented on the word adipocere
Colloquially known as grave wax.
September 23, 2008