inurn
Americanverb
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to place (esp cremated ashes) in an urn
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a less common word for inter
Usage
What does inurn mean? To inurn is to put something in an urn, that is, a decorative vase or container. Most often, ashes of a deceased loved one are inurned in such a container. To inurn is also to inter, that is bury, a dead body, as in When our dog Scruffy died, we inurned her beneath her favorite tree in the backyard. Inurn is almost exclusively used in the context of funeral rites and cremation. Some people will have a deceased loved one inurned and then display the urn in their home as a way to remember and honor the deceased. Both people and animals may be cremated and inurned. Example: After the ashes are inurned, the container is sealed and locked so that the ashes remain in the urn.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inurn
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The heart that healed all hearts of pain No funeral rites inurn: Its echoes, while the stars remain, Return.
From Poems and Ballads (Third Series) Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol. III by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
A brother's pious hand The pure, fire-winnowed ashes shall inurn, And lay them in the orange grove where burn Globed suns that scent the land.
From The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1 by Lazarus, Emma
For all thy foam, for all thy din, Thee shall the pallid lake inurn, With well-a-day for Mr. Swin-Burne!
From New Poems by Stevenson, Robert Louis
May this narrow spot inurn Aught that so could heat and burn?
From Strange Pages from Family Papers by Dyer, T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton)
O flights of fond fancy that deeply inurn Sweet scenes of our childhood, no more to return!
From The Old Hanging Fork and Other Poems by Doneghy, George W.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
