▪ I. sepulture, n.
(ˈsɛpəltjʊə(r))
Forms: 4 Sc. sepultore, 5 supulture, sepulturre, sepoltur, 5–6 sepult(o)ur, 6 sepoltre, sepulter, 3– sepulture.
[a. OF. sepulture, ad. L. sepultūra burial, f. sepult-, ppl. stem of sepelīre to bury; cf. Sp., Pg. sepultura, It. sepoltura, sepultura.]
1. Interment, burial.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 3466 Wel aȝte þat be a wurþe stude wanne þer such sepulture ys. c 1315 Shoreham Poems (E.E.T.S.) 125 For þe offyce of hyre sepulture Was al an heuene gyse. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2553 Myn body mote ȝe se..In the hauene of Athenys fletynge With-oute sepulture & beryinge. c 1400 Mandeville Trav. (1839) xxix. 243 The Erthe mynystrethe to us..oure Sepulture aftre oure Dethe. 1504 Bury Wills (Camden) 100 And I beqweth to the seid churche for my sepultur vj s. viij d. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxix. ii, Their bodies killed With sepulture can no where meete. 1632 Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry ii. i, He had rather dye aliue for debt Of the old man in prison, then he should Rob him of Sepulture. 1720 Pope Iliad xxii. 429 The common Rites of Sepulture bestow, To sooth a Father's and a Mother's woe. 1757 Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. ii. ii. Wks. 1812 V. 516 The monastery was always the place of sepulture for the greatest lords and kings. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Ranke ¶51 Even the honours of sepulture were long withheld from his remains. 1902 ‘Fairless’ Roadmender 30 Yesterday a funeral passed, from the workhouse at N―, a quaint sepulture without solemnities. |
b. transf. and fig.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 558 For dronkenesse is verray sepulture Of mannes wit and his discrecion. 1474 Caxton Chesse i. iii. (1883) 15 Ydleness wyth oute ony ocupacion is sepulture of a many lyuyng. 1621 Bacon in Four C. Eng. Lett. (1880) 43 For the house of Commons, I began my credit there, and now it must be the place of sepulture thereof. 1877 L. Morris Epic Hades ii. 150 Tore thy limbs And left them to the Muses' sepulture. |
2. A burial-place, grave, tomb: = sepulchre n. 1. Now only arch.
| a 1375 Cursor M. 25614 (Fairf.) Squete ihesus..atte time of complin..þer was þou wondin laide in sepulture & noȝt fondin. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 369 Þe place of pasture were i-torned to buriels and sepultures. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 142 Ther roos up oon out of his sepulture, Terrible of face. 1496 Bury Wills (Camden) 229 In the holy sepulture of the cherche yeerd of Seynt Marie. 1531 Elyot Gov. ii. vi, Marius..also caused Caius Cesar..to be violently drawen to the sepulture of one Varius..and there to be dishonestly slayne. 1540 Heywood Four PP. 14 At Hierusalem haue I bene Before Chrystes blessed sepulture. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iv. (1577) T v, The manner was too reare about ones sepulture so many Obeliskes, as he that lay there buryed had slayne of his enimies. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 593 A faire Abbay, the Sepulture in times past of..the Burnels. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. vi. 23 She erected over their sepultures, a marble tombe of her owne. 1812 Cary Dante, Purg. v. 91 From Campaldino's field what force or chance Drew thee, that ne'er thy sepulture was known. 1868 Stanley Westm. Abb. iii. 117 The Royal sepultures of Westminster were also remarkable from their connexion..with the residence of the English Princes. |
† b. Holy Sepulture: = sepulchre n. 2. Obs.
| 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. lxi. 204 All these wente to se and vysyte the holy sepulture. |
† c. transf. and fig. Obs.
| 1463 Ashby Prisoner's Refl. 344 Pryson properly ys a sepulture Of lyuyng men. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. ii. 213 My money..was spent vpon Sepultures for dead bodies, on dead workes, and worldly vices. |
† 3. = sepulchre n. 3. Obs.
| 1485 Acc. St. Marg. Southwark in Feasey Anc. Eng. H. Week Cerem. (1897) 153 Item. ij blew Cortyns [to] draw afore the sepulture. 1494–5 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 228 Item, for the mending of the sepulture, the chapell dure, and Judas crois. 1553 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904) 51 Delyuered a stayned Cloth yat went about y⊇ Sepultere. 1557 Churchw. Acc. St. Helens, Abingdon (Nichols 1797) 141 To the sextin for watching the sepulter two nyghtes 0 0 8. |
| attrib. 1527–8 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904) 343 Paid for an eln of fyne lynnyn cloth to amend the sepulture cloth wherat it was eiton with rattes. |
▪ II. sepulture, v.
(ˈsɛpəltjʊə(r))
[f. the n.]
trans. To bury, inter.
| c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xxviii. 592 And after the sepulturynge of the holy corps, the brethern wente agen in to theyr countree. 1826 M. W. Shelley Last Man III. 146 Grave in which my heart lies sepultured, farewell for ever! 1897 F. Thompson New Poems 114 Thou gavest him his light, Though sepultured in night Beneath the dead bones of a perished world. |