Bod"y (&?;), n.; pl. Bodies (&?;). [OE. bodi, AS. bodig; akin to OHG. botah. √257. Cf. Bodice.]
1. The material organized substance of an animal, whether living or dead, as distinguished from the spirit, or vital principle; the physical person.
Absent in body, but present in spirit.
1 Cor. v. 3
For of the soul the body form doth take.
For soul is form, and doth the body make.
Spenser.
2. The trunk, or main part, of a person or animal, as distinguished from the limbs and head; the main, central, or principal part, as of a tree, army, country, etc.
Who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together?
Shak.
The van of the king's army was led by the general; . . . in the body was the king and the prince.
Clarendon.
Rivers that run up into the body of Italy.
Addison.
3. The real, as opposed to the symbolical; the substance, as opposed to the shadow.
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Col. ii. 17.