carrion
10
8.1
- noun
- /ˈkɛr.i.ən/
- NSFW
:
carroña
- Vultures play a crucial role in the ecosystem by consuming carrion and preventing the spread of disease.
- eating carrion
- feeding on carrion
Depression glass, the carrion crows settling satisfied on roadkill.
- Depression glass, the carrion crows settling satisfied on roadkill.
- With it came a carrion stench that made him wince and Wretch.
Examples
-
Hundreds of them will gather atop a dead seal or other carrion on this sterile plain.
Academic text (1992) -
The Spotted Hyena is reputed to be a scavenger and actually feeds on carrion, subsisting largely on lion kills.
Academic text (2005) -
Throw this carrion in the river.
-
Well, they can smell carrion from miles away, which is what death smells like.
-
The smell of mud rot and carrion rose in the air.
Fiction book (1997) -
Vultures and carrion birds pick at their remains.
-
I was still there, wondering what to do, when I saw a carrion bird hovering over the body.
Fiction book (2002) -
You left my father to hang like a common thief, carrion for the crows.
Fiction book (1991) -
The gases, the smells of spent powder, of carrion and mold were so rich that I became dizzy.
Fiction book (1991) -
Crows picked through carrion in the courtyard and croaked and cawed.
Fiction book (1999)
Compounds
- Specialized
A fleshy plant without leaves that has large star-shaped flowers that smell like rotting meat and attract flies
How Decayed
Surface Forms
Etymology
Carrion comes from an old root carn- meaning 'flesh', the same root you see in carnivore which means 'meat-eater'. So carrion is literally 'flesh' — the dead, decaying meat that animals like vultures feed on.