charnel house

American  

noun

1. a house or place in which the bodies or bones of the dead are deposited.

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charnel house British  

noun

1. (esp formerly) a building or vault where corpses or bones are deposited

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Etymology

Origin of charnel house

First recorded in 1550–60

Example Sentences

Scaled up to a necropolis, it could make the right impression, a modernist Hooverville of death in the shadow of our great national charnel house of inaction.

From Washington Post • May 25, 2022

Television is a veritable charnel house containing the bones of characters who died unnecessary or stupid deaths.

From Salon • Dec. 15, 2021

Above their heads: a charnel house of endangered trees.

From Scientific American • Dec. 15, 2021

I followed her out of the charnel house into a cold, heavy rain, spitting bile onto the pavement.

From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2020

From this charnel house let me to-night draw forth one of these.

From White Slavery in the Barbary States by Sumner, Charles