corpse : Idioms & Phrases


Corpse candle

  • . (a) A thick candle formerly used at a lich wake, or the customary watching with a corpse on the night before its interment. (b) A luminous appearance, resembling the flame of a candle, sometimes seen in churchyards and other damp places, superstitiously regarded as portending death.
Webster 1913

Corpse gate

  • the gate of a burial place through which the dead are carried, often having a covered porch; called also lich gate.
Webster 1913