subs. (popular).—An undertaker. [Literally one who has to deal with cold meat, i.e., the lifeless human body.] Cf., COLD MEAT and its derivatives.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Carrion hunter; body snatcher; death hunter; black worker (see BLACK WORK).
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Un emballeur de refroidis (thieves’: an undertaker’s man; literally ‘a packer of cold meat’).
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1864. HOTTEN, The Slang Dictionary, s.v.
