sepulchre
sepulcher
- a tomb, grave, or burial place.
- Also called Easter sepulcher. Ecclesiastical.
- a cavity in a mensa for containing relics of martyrs.
- a structure or a recess in some old churches in which the Eucharist was deposited with due ceremonies on Good Friday and taken out at Easter in commemoration of Christ's entombment and Resurrection.
- to place in a sepulcher; bury.
Origin of sepulcher
Synonyms for sepulcher
Examples from the Web for sepulchre
Historical Examples of sepulchre
It should not be a tomb save as upon the fourth day the sepulchre in the garden!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
The sepulchre of Lazarus was a cave, with a large stone upon its mouth.
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. IIFrancis Augustus Cox
A family or a burial association needed a place of sepulchre.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
Indeed, the sepulchre was empty now, the very ashes had been swept out of it.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
What a place to bury a king who had built a great pyramid for his sepulchre!
Chit-Chat; Nirvana; The SearchlightMathew Joseph Holt
sepulchre
US sepulcher
- a burial vault, tomb, or grave
- Also called: Easter sepulchre a separate alcove in some medieval churches in which the Eucharistic elements were kept from Good Friday until the Easter ceremonies
- (tr) to bury in a sepulchre
Word Origin for sepulchre
Word Origin and History for sepulchre
also sepulcher, c.1200, "tomb, burial place," especially the cave where Jesus was buried outside Jerusalem (Holy Sepulcher or Saint Sepulcher), from Old French sepulcre "tomb; the Holy Sepulchre" (11c.), from Latin sepulcrum "grave, tomb, place where a corpse is buried," from root of sepelire "to bury, embalm," originally "to perform rituals on a corpse," from PIE *sep-el-yo-, suffixed form of root *sep- "to handle (skillfully), to hold (reverently);" cf. Sanskrit saparyati "honors." No reason for the -ch- spelling, which dates to 13c. Whited sepulchre "hypocrite" is from Matt. xxiii.27.