English
body
see also: Body
Etymology

From Middle English bodi, bodiȝ, from Old English bodiġ, from Proto-West Germanic *bodag, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ-.

Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈbɒdi/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈbɑdi/, [ˈbɑɾi]
Noun

body

  1. Physical frame.
    1. The physical structure of a human or animal seen as one single organism. [from 9th c.]
      I saw them walking from a distance, their bodies strangely angular in the dawn light.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 1 Corinthians 12:15–20 ↗:
        If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body: is it therefore not of the body?
        And if the eare shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body: is it therefore not of the body?
        If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
        But now hath God set the members, euery one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
        And if they were all one member, where were the body?
        But now are they many members, yet but one body.
    2. The fleshly or corporeal nature of a human, as opposed to the spirit or soul. [from 13th c.]
      The body is driven by desires, but the soul is at peace.
    3. A corpse. [from 13th c.]
      Her body was found at four o’clock, just two hours after the murder.
    4. (archaic or informal except in compounds) A person. [from 13th c.]
      • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC ↗:
        Folio Society 1973, page 463:
        Indeed, if it belonged to a poor body, it would be another thing; but so great a lady, to be sure, can never want it […]
      • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 28, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC ↗:
        Sometime I've set right down and eat WITH him. But you needn't tell that. A body's got to do things when he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing.
      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
        “Well,” I says, “I cal’late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.
      What’s a body gotta do to get a drink around here?
    5. (sociology) A human being, regarded as marginalized or oppressed.
      • 1999, Devon Carbado, Black Men on Race, Gender, and Sexuality: A Critical Reader, page 87:
        This, of course, was not about the State, but it was certainly an invasion: black bodies acting out in a public domain circumscribed by a racist culture. The Garvey movement presents an example of black bodies transgressing racialized spatial boundaries.
      • 2012, Trystan T. Cotten, Transgender Migrations, page 3:
        In doing so, Haritaworn also rethinks the marginality of transgender bodies and practices in queer movements and spaces.
      • 2016, Laura Harrison, Brown Bodies, White Babies, page 5:
        As the title suggests, this project is particularly interested in how race intersects with reproductive technologies—how brown bodies are deployed in the creation of white babies.
  2. Main section.
    1. The torso, the main structure of a human or animal frame excluding the extremities (limbs, head, tail). [from 9th c.]
      The boxer took a blow to the body.
    2. The largest or most important part of anything, as distinct from its appendages or accessories. [from 11th c.]
      The bumpers and front tyres were ruined, but the body of the car was in remarkable shape.
    3. (archaic) The section of a dress extending from the neck to the waist, excluding the arms. [from 16th c.]
      Penny was in the scullery, pressing the body of her new dress.
    4. The content of a letter, message, or other printed or electronic document, as distinct from signatures, salutations, headers, and so on. [from 17th c.]
    A bodysuit. [from 19th c.]
    1. (programming) The code of a subroutine, contrasted to its signature and parameters. [from 20th c.]
      In many programming languages, the method body is enclosed in braces.
    2. (architecture, of a church) nave.
  3. Coherent group.
    1. A group of people having a common purpose or opinion; a mass. [from 16th c.]
      I was escorted from the building by a body of armed security guards.
    2. An organisation, company or other authoritative group. [from 17th c.]
      The local train operating company is the managing body for this section of track.
    3. A unified collection of details, knowledge or information. [from 17th c.]
      We have now amassed a body of evidence which points to one conclusion.
  4. Material entity.
    1. Any physical object or material thing. [from 14th c.]
      All bodies are held together by internal forces.
    2. (uncountable) Substance; physical presence. [from 17th c.]
      • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC ↗; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC ↗:
        The voice had an extraordinary sadness. Pure from all body, pure from all passion, going out into the world, solitary, unanswered, breaking against rocks—so it sounded.
      We have given body to what was just a vague idea.
    3. (uncountable) Comparative viscosity, solidity or substance (in wine, colours etc.). [from 17th c.]
      The red wine, sadly, lacked body.
    4. An agglomeration of some substance, especially one that would be otherwise uncountable.
      The English Channel is a body of water lying between Great Britain and France.
      • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns‎:
        The huge body of ice is in the southeastern edge of a Central Asian region called the Third Pole.
  5. (printing) The shank of a type, or the depth of the shank (by which the size is indicated).
    a nonpareil face on an agate body
    • 1992, Mary Kay Duggan, Italian Music Incunabula: Printers and Type, page 99:
      The stemless notes could have been cast on a body as short as 4 mm but were probably cast on bodies of the standard 14 mm size for ease of composition.
  6. (geometry) A three-dimensional object, such as a cube or cone.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

body (bodies, present participle bodying; simple past and past participle bodied)

  1. (transitive, often with forth) To give body or shape to something.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      And as imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen / Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.
  2. To construct the bodywork of a car.
  3. (transitive) To embody.
  4. (transitive, slang, African American Vernacular English) To murder someone.
    1. (by extension) To utterly defeat someone.
Body
Etymology
  • Aan English surname, from Middle English body, probably a nickname for a corpulent person; and occupational surname from Middle English bode + -y.
  • As a French - surname, variant of Bodin.
  • As a Hungarian - surname Bódy, variant of Bódi, Bodi.
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
Proper noun
  1. (Cantab slang, archaic) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.


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