potter's field

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potter's field

A place for the burial of unknown or indigent persons.

[From the potter's field mentioned in Matthew 27:7.]

potter's field

1. US a cemetery where the poor or unidentified are buried at the public expense

2. (Bible) New Testament the land bought by the Sanhedrin with the money paid for the betrayal of Jesus (which Judas had returned to them) to be used as a burial place for strangers and the friendless poor (Acts 1:19; Matthew 27:7)

pot′ter's field′

n.
(sometimes caps.)

a burial place for unidentified persons and the poor. Matt. 27:7.

[1526 (Tindale)]

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Noun

potter's field - a cemetery for unknown or indigent people

burial ground, burial site, burying ground, cemetery, graveyard, memorial park, necropolis - a tract of land used for burials

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References in classic literature ?

In the register of the potter's field I shall soon have both.

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It's quite clear her heart is as insensible to eloquence and poetry, as a Potter's Field wall, and it might answer to try her with a little truth.

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Ona was not yet buried; but the police had been notified, and on the morrow they would put the body in a pine coffin and take it to the potter's field. Elzbieta was out begging now, a few pennies from each of the neighbors, to get enough to pay for a mass for her; and the children were upstairs starving to death, while he, good-for-nothing rascal, had been spending their money on drink.

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But Calv wont be laid back when he DJ's a disco funk set with Little Boots at Nokia Skate Almighty, a free outdoor roller disco at Potter's Fields, London from August 5-9.