Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To incinerate (a corpse).
from The Century Dictionary.
- To burn up or destroy by heat; specifically, to consume (a dead body) by intense heat, as a substitute for burial.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To burn; to reduce to ashes by the action of fire, either directly or in an oven or retort; to incremate or incinerate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive to burn something to ashes
- verb transitive to
incinerate adead body (as an alternative to burial)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb reduce to ashes
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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We were asked to believe that when he tried to "cremate" his clone by dumping the dead body down a smokestack back in the mid-70s, he somehow totally failed to notice that the clone was just unconscious instead of dead.
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Japan's Kyodo news agency says crematoriums in Miyagi province are running out of fuel to cremate bodies.
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“I want you to cremate me and scatter my ashes anywhere but here.”
Miracles, Inc. T.J. Forrester 2011
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After deliberations involving Stalin and the head of the secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky, who had organised the funeral, it had been decided to embalm Lenin rather than bury or cremate the body.
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Though I will bet the bloody Labour Party has prohibited that on health and safety grounds, and that they won't be able to cremate the body because crematoria aren't allowed to smoke any more.
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"The government is acting like a mafia, telling relatives, 'We'll give you extra compensation if you cremate now, and stay quiet,'" Li says.
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I have warned him that if he doesn't decide soon, I'll cremate him.
Planning That Final Party Kathleen A. Hughes 2011
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Japan's Kyodo news agency says crematoriums in Miyagi province are running out of fuel to cremate bodies.
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The remains of the soldier had been returned to the family, and they expressed a wish that the military cremate any other remains that were subsequently identified.
Military Lost Troops' Remains Julian E. Barnes 2011
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Then, seeming to choke up a couple of times, Rudd told the crowd about how after his father died of cancer, the family decided the only logical thing to do was cremate him and spread portions of his ashes at different beloved spots in Ireland.
oroboros commented on the word cremate
CREmATE
April 25, 2008