burial
(ˈbɛrɪəl)
Forms: 3 biriel, 4–6 bery-, beri-, buryel, -ell, -elle, -all, -alle, 5–6 byryall, -ele, -elle, 6 bereall, 6–7 buriall, 6– burial.
[ME. buryel, biriel, incorrectly formed as a sing. of byriels, buriels, q.v.; in later times associated with ns. in -al from Fr., such as espousal-s.]
† 1. A burying place, grave, or tomb. Obs.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2488 Ðor is ðat liche in biriele don. 1388 Wyclif 2 Kings xxiii. 17 And the kyng seide, What is this biriel, which Y se? 1398 Trevisa Barth. de P.R. xii. xxviii. (1495) 430 The nyghte owle hauntyth and dwellyth in buryels. c 1450 tr. Higden (1865) I. 415 There is a maruellous berielle..in Weste Wales. 1535 Coverdale Neh. ii. 5, I beseke the sende me..vnto y⊇ cite of my fathers buryall [1611 sepulchres]. 1612 Acts Jas. VI (1814) 499 (Jam.) And thairfore the said Revestrie was disponit to Schir James Dundas of Arnestoun knycht to be ane buriall for him and his posteritie. |
| fig. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. i. 29 Vailing her high top lower then her ribs To kisse her buriall. |
2. a. The act of burying; interment; funeral.
| 1453 Test. Ebor. (1855) II. 171 To the kyrk-wark for my beriall, xxs. 1467 Ibid. II. 278 The day of my beriall. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, The Order for the Burial of the Dead. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 2 Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall, that wilfully seekes her owne saluation. 1611 Bible Jer. xxii. 19 He shall be buried with the buriall of an asse. 1647 F. Bland Souldiers March Salv. 35 To commend his body to due burials. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Christian Burial, that performed in holy ground, and with the usual service or ceremonies of the church. Burial of an ass, Asini sepultura, an ignominious kind of burial, out of holy ground, under the gallows, or in a high way, where several roads meet, and performed by public hangmen. Such is that of suicides, excommunicated persons, etc., sometimes denoted canine burial, or burial of a dog. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. vi. 513 The body received a second burial. |
b. transf. and
fig.| 1603 Drayton Bar. Warres vi. xcvi, Which in this Bosom shall their Buriall have. 1878 Morley Diderot II. 50 The burial of men and women alive in the cloister. |
c. pl. Formerly in computations, etc. of mortality, which were based on the entries of burials:
= Deaths.
| a 1687 Petty Pol. Arith. 1 The Medium of the Burials at London in the three last years..was 22337. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Burials, in computations of mortality, denote deaths, and stand opposed to births. 1782 Burke Sk. Negro Code Wks. IX. 305 Every Minister shall keep a register of births, burials and marriages. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 408 During the same months of the year 1803, the burials amounted to 238. |
3. The depositing of anything under earth or water, or enclosing it in some other substance.
| a 1626 Bacon New Atlantis (1635) 33 We have great lakes, both salt and fresh; we use them for burials of some natural bodies. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Some commend burials in the earth, others in wheat, to season timber when first felled, and make it of more durable use. |
4. Comb. and
attrib., as
burial-cake,
burial-chamber,
burial-cloth,
burial-clothes,
burial-feast,
burial-field,
burial-law,
burial-office,
burial-procession,
burial-torch,
burial-truce,
burial-urn,
burial-vault.
| 1864 A. M{supc}Kay Hist. Kilmarnock 194 He ordered twelve dozen of *burial-cakes. |
| 1871 Alger Future Life 94 Along the sides of the *burial-chamber were ranged massive stone shelves. |
| 1570–1 Old City Acc. Bk. (Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII.) Rd. for the *bwryall cloth of mr. peke, xvjd. |
| 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. II. xxii. 75, I had better put my *burial-clothes in my portmanteau and set off at once. |
| 1579 Fulke Refut. Rastel 798 They called together the people..to their *buriall feastes. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iv. v. 87 Our wedding cheare, to a sad buriall Feast. |
| 1742 R. Blair Grave 484 What is this world? What but a spacious *burial-field unwall'd! |
| 1880 Act 43 Vict. c. 41 *Burial Laws Amendment Act. |
| 1871 Alger Future Life 93 Perceiving their [Etruscans'] *burial-processions and funeral festivals. |
| 1709 Steele Tatler No. 109 ¶1 Three Men with *Burial Torches. |
| 1862 Grote Greece V. ii. lvi. 76 Granting the customary *burial-truce to the defeated enemy. |
| 1766 Entick London IV. 76 A *burial-vault the whole length of the church. |
5. Special
Comb.:
burial-aisle, an aisle in a religious building used for interments, also
fig.;
burial-board, a body of persons appointed by public authority to regulate burials;
burial-case U.S., a shaped coffin, made to close air-tight, for the preservation of a corpse;
burial club = burial-society;
burial-hill,
-mound, a mound erected over a grave, a tumulus, barrow;
burial permit U.S., a certificate authorizing the burial of a deceased person;
burial-service, a religious service accompanying a burial; a form of words prescribed by ecclesiastical authority to be used at funerals;
esp. that used in the Church of England;
burial-society, an insurance society for providing money for the expenses of burial;
burial-stone, a stone on a grave, a tomb-stone;
burial-yard, burial-ground, grave-yard. Also
burial-ground, -place.
| 1820 Scott Abbot xxxviii, To send his body and his heart to be buried in Avenel *burial-aisle. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. xi. 88 Looks he also wistfully into the long burial-aisle of the Past. |
| 1851 C. Cist Cincinnati 191 Every possible variety in which iron can be cast, from a butt hinge to a *burial case. 1870 ‘Mark Twain’ in Wks. (1900) XIX. 259, I am talking about your high-toned, silver mounted burial-case. |
| 1848 Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton I. vi. 109 The town must bury him; he had paid to a *burial club..but by a few weeks' omission, he had forfeited his claim. 1910 A. Bennett Clayhanger i. x. 76 To be an established subscriber to the Burial Club was evidence of good character and social spirit. |
| c 1600 Norden Spec. Brit. Cornw. (1728) 70 He was a digging a borowe or *buriall hill. |
| 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. 210 Stumbling among *burial-mounds and tombstones, he had toppled into an open grave. 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times 63 The tumuli or ancient burial-mounds. |
| 1888 St. Louis Globe Democrat (Farmer), Yesterday's *Burial Permits. 1908 Daily Chron. 22 May 1/3 The case..has developed sensational features through the refusal of the authorities to grant a burial permit. |
| 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 132 If it be not..prohibited..by a Rubrick of the *Burial-Service. 1838 Dickens O. Twist v, The reverend gentleman..read as much of the burial-service as could be compressed into four minutes. 1857 Geo. Eliot Scenes Clerical Life xxxvii. 329 The faces were not hard at this funeral; the burial-service was not a hollow form. |
| 1812 in C. S. Davies Hist. Macclesfield (1961) iv. 180 Sick and *burial societies which are the germ of revolution. 1850 Rep. Extramural Sepulture 63 in Parl. Papers XXI. 575 Mr. George Downing, a mechanic and secretary to a burial society,..represents the sentiments prevalent among persons of his own class on this subject. |
| c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 756 Hoc poliandrum, a *byryelston. 1864 Skeat Uhland's Poems 117 Engraven on this burial-stone Two hands together clasped you view. |
| 1842 Miall in Nonconf. II. 33 The same authority demands a *burial-yard rate. |
6. As second element in comb. with
ns., as
house-burial,
ship-burial,
tree-burial,
urn-burial, etc.: see under the first element.
Hence
ˈburialer, one who assists at a burial.
| 1832 Hogg in Fraser's Mag. VI. 166 The burialers..were lying powerless..beside the corpse of their dead relative. |
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burial plot n. a plot containing a grave or graves; (now usually) a plot within a cemetery,
esp. one designated for the use of a particular family.
| 1580 T. N. tr. P. Mex{iacu}a Pleasaunt Dialogue sig. A.iii, The Mahomettes, which wander toward theyr holy place Mecha, which is the *buryall plotte of theyr Aduocate and false Prophete Mahomet. 1769 H. Gideon City Remembrancer I. 252 The chapel was afterwards converted into a dwelling house, and the burial plot into a garden. 1852 C. Lanman Private Life Daniel Webster 82 At the back of the family *burial-plot is the tomb, of rough-hewn, massive granite. 1902 Times 31 Mar. 4/6 They had, he said, no burial plots for Freemasons or Orangemen, and this man must have been smuggled into the cemetery as a Protestant. 2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 1 June c3/1 (advt.) They also claimed that the Defendants plotted and sold burial plots with insufficient space so there was inadequate room to place bodies in their proper locations. |