different between carcass vs leavings

English

Alternative forms

• carcase

Etymology

Dated from the late 13th Century C.E.; from Anglo-Norman carcois, possibly related to Old French charcois. Cognate with French carcasse.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??k?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??k?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k?s
• Hyphenation: car?cass

Noun

carcass (plural carcasses)

1. The body of a dead animal.
   • 1992, Dorothy L. Cheney, Robert M. Seyfarth, How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species, page 284,

     Despite all of the groups' experiences with leopards and carcasses in trees, neither the vervets nor the baboons gave alarm calls at the sight of the carcass alone.

   • 2005, Maria S. Johnson, Tim R. Nagy, Chapter 10: Animal Body Composition Methods, Steven B. Heymsfield, Timothy G. Lohman, ZiMian Wang, Scott B. Going, (editors), Human Body Composition, 2nd Edition, page 141,

     Instead, the majority of studies involve freezing the carcasses until time permits the analysis.

2. (meat trade) The body of a slaughtered animal, stripped of unwanted viscera, etc.
   • 1961, D. M. Doty, John C. Pierce, Beef Muscle Characteristics as Related to Carcass Grade, Carcass Weight, and Degree of Aging, US Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin No. 1231, page 33,

     Lean flavor scores for this muscle were lower than those for ribeye, especially in Prime grade carcasses.
3. The body of a dead human, a corpse.
4. The framework of a structure, especially one not normally seen.
5. (nautical) An early incendiary ship-to-ship projectile consisting of an iron shell filled with saltpetre, sulphur, resin, turpentine, antimony and tallow with vents for flame.

Usage notes

The form carcase is closer to Middle English spellings (carcays or carkeis).
Carcase may be more common in varieties of British English than it is in US English. For instance, in Australia, some newspapers use carcase, while others use carcass. The Australian Dept of Agriculture uses carcase for the sense body of slaughtered animal.

Synonyms

• see Thesaurus:corpse

Translations

See also

• cadaver
• carrion
• corpse

References

English

Etymology

Participial form of "leave".

Noun

leavings pl (plural only)

1. A worthless and incidental residuum, such as scraps from a meal, or shavings or sawdust from wood.

   The leavings were thrown to the dogs.

   The poor survive on the leavings of the rich and wasteful.

Translations

Anagrams

• Svengali, sleaving, svengali