body count

body count

1. The number of people killed in a particular incident, especially soldiers killed in a military effort. The body count is uncertain after the earthquake, but we expect the number to rise as rescue efforts continue. The body count in the latest fight against insurgents is the highest yet.
2. The number of people who participate or are involved in a given activity or situation. I have a body count of about 24 people so far, so it looks like we're still waiting for a few more to join the tour.
See also: body, count
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

body count

1. n. the total of dead bodies after a battle. The body count at Hill 49 was three.
2. n. the total number of casualties after some kind of shake-up. The pink slips are coming out every day. The body count on Monday was twenty-three.
3. n. a count of people present. The body count was about forty-five at the meeting.
See also: body, count
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

body count

The number of casualties from a given operation. Originating during the Vietnam War, where it denoted the number of troops killed, it later was extended to casualties of disasters such as fires and earthquakes.
See also: body, count
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • blood is shed
  • remain down
  • lose the number of (one's) mess
  • slow boat to China
  • on a slow boat to China
  • the cards beat all the players
  • to the death
  • lose your life
  • lose (one's) life
  • smeared
References in periodicals archive
So far in 2008, between 8,315 and 9,028 people have been killed, a sharp drop compared to the 25,774 to 27,599 killed in 2006 and 22,671 to 24,295 who died in 2007, according to Body Count figures.
The 'Pushing Daisies' star will take up the role of Bathory, who is known as the murderess with the biggest ever body count.
SYLVESTER Stallone's new Rambo film is the most violent in the series - with a higher body count than the previous three movies combined.
The letter's publication marked the launch of a new joint campaign www.countthecasualties.org.uk by health charity Medact and the Iraq Body Count project, who are challenging the Government to count casualties systematically.
A secret scientific paper surfaces, with arson and murder close behind, as Ames looks to clear himself and avoid being added to the body count. A good part of the story deals with kidnappings and homicides that take place in another part of the country and seemingly are not related to the original plot.
Flowers announced that she'd posted a Clinton Body Count on her Web site (www.genniferflowers.com) and invited viewers to check it out.
In "Body Count: The Dead at Tay Ninh," Bowen uses even a sparer, more matter-of-fact style to depict the grotesque.
"That may be so," the Northerner responds, "but it is also irrelevant." That encounter sets the stage for this saga of the "other war"--the war whose buzz words were not "body count" but "civil action," "pacification," and "a third-force solution"; the war waged not by bombers and ground forces but, as Daniel Ellsberg put it, by "the good guys."
'Apat na ang aming hawak na body count. Pero meron limang additional,' Sobejana added.
The emotional tension reaches fever pitch as the body count multiplies and Dave Robicheaux finds himself not just on the trail of a serial killer, but has serious fears for the safety of his own daughter.
Sources: the National Priorities Project Web site costorwar.com the Iraq Casualty Count Web site icasualties.org and the Iraq Body Count Web site www.iraqbodycount.ent
As the daily body count climbs, it is a chilling description of what it is like to live with the threat of imminent death.
Look at the body count, the number of lives they and their minions have tarred to save themselves from the probe of informed public opinion, without so much as an eyeblink of remorse.
It's hard to see how revisionist history could plausibly alter this interpretation, and Ambrose is no revisionist; he admist he shouted "napalm" and "body count" during a 1970 speeach Nixon gave at Kansas State University.
The disappointing result for all but die-hard gore addicts is a messily inventive body count but much less suspense.