exhume

Verb

exhume (third-person singular simple present exhumes, present participle exhuming, simple past and past participle exhumed)

1. (transitive) To dig out of the ground; to take out of a place of burial; to disinter.
   • The archeologist exhumed artifacts from the ground with a shovel.
   • Not so long ago a Scotsman is reported to have exhumed the body of his daughter and burnt her heart, as he thought she was devitalising her remaining brother and sister and making them ill.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 126
2. (figuratively, transitive) To uncover; to bring to light.
   • Long dead traditions are exhumed just for the tourists.
   • Memorial was permeated by a sense of mission, a moral imperative to exhume the truth and display it to the eyes of its compatriots, whatever feelings of shame, outrage, denial, or shock might ensue.2009, S. E. Wilmer, Writing and Rewriting National Theatre Histories, page 47