exhume

[ ig-zoom, -zyoom, eks-hyoom ]

verb (used with object)

, ex·humed, ex·hum·ing.

1. to dig (something buried, especially a dead body) out of the earth; disinter.
2. to revive or restore after neglect or a period of forgetting; bring to light:

   to exhume a literary reputation; to exhume old letters.

exhume

/ ɛksˈhjuːm; ˌɛkshjʊˈmeɪʃən /

verb

1. to dig up (something buried, esp a corpse); disinter
2. to reveal; disclose; unearth

   don't exhume that old argument

Derived Forms

• exˈhumer, noun
• exhumation, noun

Other Words From

• ex·hu·ma·tion [eks-hy, oo, -, mey, -sh, uh, n], noun
• ex·humer noun
• unex·humed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of exhume¹

1400–50; late Middle English < Medieval Latin exhumāre, equivalent to Latin ex- ex- ¹ + humāre to inter

Word History and Origins

Origin of exhume¹

C18: from Medieval Latin exhumāre, from Latin ex- ¹+ humāre to bury, from humus the ground

Example Sentences

On the precipice of turning 40, somewhere halfway through this marathon of a life, I want to exhume what I feel I’ve abandoned and lost.

From Los Angeles Times

Israeli security forces have denied burying bodies in mass graves, although they acknowledged that soldiers searching for the bodies of hostages had exhumed some mass graves.

From Salon

Ahead of the broadcast of the film, billed as “a documentary thriller”, the forensic team has revealed one result of its research: that the remains exhumed from Seville were indeed those of the explorer.

From BBC

Between 12 and 15 December, Abiyah's body was exhumed from a garden on Clarence Road in Handsworth, from which the couple had been evicted earlier that year.

From BBC

Now, in the converted space, on rows of stainless tables, lay 13,000 bones exhumed from 46 graves — and 62 caskets — from the cemetery on the hill above Honolulu.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• disclose
• resurrect
• unearth