exhume

Meanings

1. 1verbtransitive

   To dig up a dead body from its grave, usually for an official reason such as a legal investigation.

   Grammar: Takes an object: exhume the body.

   Patterns

   • exhume someone
   • exhume a body

   Police asked a court to exhume the body for further tests.

   The family agreed to exhume the grave so he could be reburied at home.

   Scientists exhumed the remains to study the cause of death.

2. 2verbtransitivefigurativeliterary

   To bring back something forgotten or hidden, especially from the past.

   Grammar: A figurative use: exhume a scandal.

   Patterns

   • exhume something from something

   The documentary exhumed a forgotten scandal from the 1970s.

   She exhumed old letters from the attic trunk.

   The director exhumed a silent film that no one had seen.

Word forms

Common combinations

exhume a body

The court allowed them to exhume a body from the cemetery.

exhume the remains

They exhumed the remains for identification.

order to exhume

The judge gave an order to exhume the grave.

exhume the past

The memoir exhumes the past in painful detail.

exhume a grave

Workers exhumed the grave at dawn.

Synonyms and how they differ

disinter

Disinter is nearly identical but even more formal and rare.

unearth

Unearth works for objects or facts, whereas exhume is for bodies.

dig up

Dig up is a casual phrasal verb that works for anything, with no sense of an official act.

resurrect

Resurrect means to bring back to life or use, not to physically dig.

Opposites

Word family

exhumation noun

the digging up of a body

exhumed adjective

dug up from a grave

inhume verb

a rare word meaning to bury

humus noun

soil rich in decayed matter, from the same Latin root

Commonly confused: exhume or exude? exhume or exhale?

Practice

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