carrion
n. uncountablen. the dead body of an animal that has been killed by a predator or died naturally. It is often eaten by scavengers like vultures or jackals.
n. the decaying flesh of a dead animal, typically consumed by scavengers. Often carries a strong, unpleasant odour and is associated with the remains of large mammals.
The vultures circled above the carrion in the desert.
After the lion finished its meal, the hyenas arrived to scavenge the remaining carrion.
The scent of carrion drifted across the valley, attracting a host of scavengers that had been waiting for the remains of the fallen herd.
The noun is derived from Middle English careine, caroigne (“dead body, corpse; animal carcass; reanimated corpse; gangrenous or rotting body or flesh; mortal nature; (derogatory) living body; (figurative) disgusting or worthless thing”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman careine, caroigne, charogne, and Old French charoigne, Northern Old French caˈronië, caroine, caroigne (modern French charogne), probably from Vulgar Latin carōnia, from Latin caro (“flesh”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)) + -ia (suffix forming nouns). Doublet of crone. The regular modern English form would be carren, carron /ˈkæɹən/ (this is found dialectally; see similar kyarn); the intervening /i/ is probably a hypercorrection based on the analogy of words like merlin/merlion. The adjective is derived from the noun.