Morgue

//mɔːɡ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A supercilious or haughty attitude; arrogance. archaic

    "They being newcomers, free from the western morgue so soon caught by Oriental Europeans, were particularly civil to me, even wishing to mix me a strong draught; but I was not so fortunate with all on board."

  2. 2
    a building (or room) where dead bodies are kept before burial or cremation wordnet
  3. 3
    A building or room where dead bodies are kept before their proper burial or cremation, (now) particularly in legal and law enforcement contexts.
  4. 4
    The archive and background information division of a newspaper. archaic

    "Librarian Talks of Newspaper Morgue"

Synonyms

All synonyms
arrogancecharnel housedead roomdisdainhauteurmortuary

Example

More examples

"That white building is a morgue."

Etymology

Borrowed from French morgue. The second sense developed from the first, via "a prison examination room", probably with reference to the haughty attitude of the jailers.

Related phrases

body bagscadaver placedead bodiesdead bodydead peopledead placedeath placehospital vaultlaw enforcementpolice officestoring bodies

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.