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Webster 1913 Edition

Carcass

Car′cass

(kär′kas)
,
Noun.
;
pl.
Carcasses
(#)
.
[Written also
carcase
.]
[F.
carcasse
, fr. It.
carcassa
, fr. L.
caro
flesh +
capsa
chest, box, case. Cf.
Carnal
,
Case
a sheath.]
1.
A dead body, whether of man or beast; a corpse; now commonly the dead body of a beast.
He turned to see the
carcass
of the lion.
Judges xiv. 8.
This kept thousands in the town whose
carcasses
went into the great pits by cartloads.
De Foe.
2.
The living body; – now commonly used in contempt or ridicule.
“To pamper his own carcass.”
South.
Lovely her face; was ne’er so fair a creature.
For earthly
carcass
had a heavenly feature.
Oldham.
3.
The abandoned and decaying remains of some bulky and once comely thing, as a ship; the skeleton, or the uncovered or unfinished frame, of a thing.
A rotten
carcass
of a boat.
Shakespeare
4.
(Mil.)
A hollow case or shell, filled with combustibles, to be thrown from a mortar or howitzer, to set fire to buldings, ships, etc.
A discharge of
carcasses
and bombshells.
W. Iving.

Webster 1828 Edition

Carcass

CARCASS

,
Noun.
1.
The body of an animal; usually the body when dead. It is not applied to the living body of the human species, except in low or ludicrous language.
2.
The decaying remains of a bulky thing, as of a boat or ship.
3.
The frame or main parts of a thing, unfinished or without ornament. This seems to be the primary sense of the word. [See the next word.]

CARCASS

,
Noun.
An iron case or hollow vessel, about the size of a bomb, of an oval figure, filled with combustible and other substances, as meal-powder, salt-peter, sulphur, broken glass, turpentine, &c., to be thrown from a mortar into a town, to set fire to buildings. It has two or three apertures, from which the fire blazes, and the light sometimes serves as a direction in throwing shells. It is equipped with pistol-barrels, loaded with powder to the muzzle, which explode as the composition burns down to them. This instrument is probably named from the ribs of iron that form it, which resemble the ribs of a human carcass.

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