morgue

Borrowed from French morgue. The second sense developed from the first, via "a prison examination room", probably with reference to the haughty attitude of the jailers.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɔːɡ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɔɹɡ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(r)ɡ

morgue (plural morgues)

1. A supercilious or haughty attitude; arrogance.
   • 1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, Dover 1964, p. 34:

     They being newcomers, free from the western morgue so soon caught by Oriental Europeans, were particularly civil to me, even wishing to mix me a strong draught; but I was not so fortunate with all on board.

2. A building or room where dead bodies are kept before their proper burial or cremation, (now) particularly in legal and law enforcement contexts.
3. The archive and background information division of a newspaper.

Kwapil, Joseph F. (2 July 1921) "Librarian Talks of Newspaper Morgue", Fourth Estate page 5.

• (place for corpses): See mortuary

• “morgue” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

• IPA^(key): /mɔʁɡ/

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morgue f (plural morgues)

1. morgue

• “morgue” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• Audio (BR)

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morgue

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of morgar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of morgar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of morgar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of morgar

Borrowed from French morgue.

morgue f (plural morgues)

1. morgue