Definition

Noun: 1. A person who illegally removes corpses from graves, typically to sell them for anatomical dissection or study. This term refers specifically to the historical practice of stealing freshly buried bodies from cemeteries to supply medical schools and anatomists in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • In the 19th century, a body snatcher might dig up a grave under the cover of darkness.
  • The medical school was accused of paying body snatchers for cadavers.
  • Fear of body snatchers led some families to install heavy mortsafes over new graves.

Advanced Usage

• Historical Context: The term is almost exclusively used in a historical context, referring to the illegal trade in corpses before the passage of anatomy laws that provided legal sources for medical dissection.
• Figurative Use: In modern, informal contexts, it can be used figuratively to describe someone who takes something (or someone) in a stealthy, unethical, or macabre way.
  • The aggressive talent agency was accused of being corporate body snatchers, poaching our best employees.

Variants and Related Words

• Resurrectionist (n): A synonym for "body snatcher," used in the same historical context.
• Grave robber (n): A broader term that can include body snatchers but also refers to those who steal grave goods and valuables from tombs, not necessarily the bodies themselves for medical use.
• Body-snatching (n): The act or practice of stealing bodies from graves.
  • The Anatomy Act of 1832 aimed to curb body-snatching.

Synonyms

• Resurrectionist
• Grave robber (context-dependent)

Related Idioms

• To have one foot in the grave: This idiom, meaning to be very old or ill, relates tangentially to the morbid theme of graves and death associated with "body snatcher."
• (As) dead as a doornail: An idiom meaning completely dead, evoking the finality that body snatchers violated.

Noun

1. someone who takes bodies from graves and sells them for anatomical dissection