Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A burial vault.
  • noun A receptacle for sacred relics, especially in an altar.
  • transitive verb To place into a sepulcher; inter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bury; inter; entomb.
  • noun A tomb; a cave, building, etc., for interment; a burial-vault.
  • noun In eccles. arch., a recess in some early churches, in which were placed on Good Friday, with appropriate ceremonies, the cross, the reserved sacrament, and the sacramental plate, and from which they were taken at high mass on Easter, to typify the burial and resurrection of Christ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The place in which the dead body of a human being is interred, or a place set apart for that purpose; a grave; a tomb.
  • noun Fig.: Any person who is fair outwardly but unclean or vile within. See Matt. xxiii. 27.
  • transitive verb To bury; to inter; to entomb.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A burial chamber.
  • verb To bury the dead.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a chamber that is used as a grave

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sepulcre, from Old French, from Latin sepulcrum, sepulchrum, from sepultus, past participle of sepelīre, to bury the dead.]

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Examples

  • Called the Chamber of Paladine, the sepulcher was a large rectangular room, built far below the ground where the destruction of the Tower did not affect it.

    Dragons of Winter Night Weis, Margaret 1985

  • Called the Chamber of Paladine, the sepulcher was a large rectangular room, built far below the ground where the destruction of the Tower did not affect it.

    Dragons of Winter Night Weis, Margaret 1985

  • Often this is in a little detached garden, containing a small stone building (where there is no rock), resembling a house, which is called the sepulcher of the family -- it has neither door nor window.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • Her watchfulness is untiring; she who guarded the sepulcher was the first to approach it, and the last to depart from its awful yet sublime scene.

    The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories 1872

  • In the context of the original inscription with nesna in it (TLE 372: Θestia Velθurnas nesna), if we are to pursue her avenue of reasoning, it should then be better translated as "sepulcher" (hence "Thestia Velthurna's sepulcher") given its archaeological context.

    Archive 2007-10-01 2007

  • In the context of the original inscription with nesna in it (TLE 372: Θestia Velθurnas nesna), if we are to pursue her avenue of reasoning, it should then be better translated as "sepulcher" (hence "Thestia Velthurna's sepulcher") given its archaeological context.

    Etruscan nesl, TLE 515 and other random Etruscan stuff 2007

  • A confirmation of this aversion on the part of some members of the Commission for the expression "sepulcher" can be found in N. Giampietro, op. cit, p. 312.

    RORATE CÆLI 2010

  • Your workspace will become a wide open plain rather than a sepulcher of records of the past.

    End the Paper Chase 2011

  • There was a sharp report; mason swung into his aerial sepulcher, and Malemute Kid lashed the dogs into a wild gallop as he fled across the snow.

    The White Silence 2010

  • His story concludes with this hybrid verse: "There laid they Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed."

    Thomas Jefferson's Cut-and-Paste Bible Stephen Prothero 2011

Comments

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  • Perry Mason - Season 6, Episode 6 - "The Case of the Dodging Domino"

    March 15, 2007

  • Really? I always thought this was spelled sepulchre.

    November 30, 2007

  • As sometimes happens, cb, you are right.

    November 30, 2007

  • According to a couple of dictionaries, "-chre" is British spelling and "-cher" is American.

    November 30, 2007

  • Of course, you have to pay extra for the whiting process. Unless you buy the $495 undercoating from the dealer as well.

    November 30, 2007

  • Or you're already a hypocrite. ;-)

    November 30, 2007

  • In America, I've seen sepulchre a couple times.

    December 1, 2007