post mortem

post mortemadj/ˌpəʊs(t)ˈmɔːtəm/

• 1

  After death.

  • The hospice's standard procedure for post mortem room cleaning looks very thorough.
• 2

  Having been inflicted or having occurred after death.

  • We shouldn't let these post mortem injuries distract us while looking for the cause of death.
  • The post mortem timeline is incomplete.

post mortemadv/ˌpəʊs(t)ˈmɔːtəm/

• 1

  Occurring after death.

  • The injuries were found to have been caused post mortem.

post mortemnoun/ˌpəʊs(t)ˈmɔːtəm/

• 1

  An investigation of a corpse to determine the cause of death.

  • Nor had the post mortem on Newson's body revealed any illness or other physical condition that might have prevented him from applying the brake, although after four days in the oven-like heat of the wreckage, the body was so badly decomposed as to make any reliable post mortem results unlikely.
• 2

  managementAny investigation after the conclusion of an activity, particularly when said activity produces an unwanted outcome.

  • Each user-visible outage or SLA violation should be followed by a postmortem and conclude with implementation of the recommendations in the postmortem report.
  • After a serious delay there is often a post mortem on what happened, but this is usually in-house.
• 3

  obsoleteAt Cambridge, a second examination for those who were "plucked" or failed in the first.