corpus delicti
Americannoun
PLURAL
corpora delicti-
the basic element or elements of a crime, as, in murder, the death of the murdered person; the body of facts or evidence showing that a crime has been committed.
-
the object, as the body of a murdered person, upon which a crime has been committed and that serves as evidence proving that the crime was committed.
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of corpus delicti
1825–35; < New Latin: “body of the offense”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Now, I read from Best on Presumptions, page 279: "The corpus delicti, the body of an offence, is the fact of its actually having been committed."
From Project Gutenberg
But, O wonder upon wonder! the corpus delicti was in very deed transformed into the fairest blooming roses; the rolls had changed to white roses, the sausages to red, the omelets to yellow ones!
From Project Gutenberg
The commonest method is the complete destruction of the corpse—the corpus delicti.
From Project Gutenberg
If Hallard could open the penitentiary, why not the grave in which a corpus delicti had been hastily hidden?
From Project Gutenberg
The most he could do was to draw me aside and disclose to me all; but the overhearing neighborhood and the impetuous corpus delicti discovered the same to the Commercial Agent.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
