Definition

1. Noun:
   • A building or room where dead bodies are kept temporarily: A facility, often part of a hospital, coroner's office, or funeral home, used for the storage and examination of deceased persons before burial, cremation, or identification.
   • (Figurative) A place or atmosphere that is cold, silent, or depressing: Used metaphorically to describe an environment devoid of life, energy, or cheer.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Literal):
  • The police took the body to the morgue for an autopsy.
  • The hospital's morgue is located in the basement.
• Noun (Figurative):
  • After the news of the layoffs, the office felt like a morgue.
  • The party was a morgue until the music started.

Advanced Usage

• "To be a morgue": To be extremely quiet and lacking in activity or liveliness.
  • The library on a Saturday night is a complete morgue.
• Journalistic "morgue": In newspaper or publishing slang, it refers to the archives or library where back issues, clippings, and reference files are kept. (Note: This is a specialized, historical usage).
  • The reporter searched the paper's morgue for articles on the old case.

Variants and Related Words

• Mortuary (noun): A synonym for morgue; also commonly refers to a funeral home.
• Mortician (noun): A person who manages mortuaries and prepares the dead for burial or cremation.

Synonyms

• Mortuary
• Funeral home (though this often implies a broader range of services)
• Deadhouse (archaic)

Related Phrases

• Cold as a morgue: An idiom describing a place as being very cold and unwelcoming.
  • Turn up the heat; this room is as cold as a morgue.

Noun

1. a building (or room) where dead bodies are kept before burial or cremation