cremate
Other forms: cremated; cremating; cremates
When you cremate something, you burn it until only ashes are left. The word cremate is most often used to describe the ceremonial burning of dead bodies.
If you burn a grilled cheese sandwich and there is nothing but black ashes left in the pan, you can say you cremated it. Usually, however, people use the verb cremate when they're talking about a practical or ceremonial burning of a body. Many people are cremated after dying, with their ashy remains either buried or scattered in a beautiful place. The Latin root word is cremare, "to burn or consume by fire."
-
reduce to ashes
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing cremate
During a Passover Seder, 12-year-old Hannah is mysteriously transported from 1980s New York to Poland during World War II. When Hannah is forced into a concentration camp, her survival depends on understanding the depraved arithmetic the Nazis use to keep track of their prisoners.
Jess and Leslie spend their free time playing in the fantasy land of Terabithia; but when tragedy strikes, one of them will have to learn to cope with loss in the real world.
When her older brother Devon dies, fifth-grader Caitlin Smith has trouble connecting to her life in Virginia without her closest guide.