crypt, n.
(krɪpt)
Also 5 cripte, 7 cript.
[ad. L. crypta: see below. Cf. F. crypte (1721, in Hatzfeld), and see grot, grotto. The L. form was commonly used up to the end of the 18th c.; the example of 1432 appears to be isolated.]
† 1. A grotto or cavern. Obs.
1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) V. 307 The cripte [Trevisa den] of Seynte Michael in the mownte Gargan. |
2. An underground cell, chamber, or vault; esp. one beneath the main floor of a church, used as a burial-place, and sometimes as a chapel or oratory.
1789 Brand Hist. & Antiq. New-Castle-upon-Tyne I. 368 The chancel of this church stood upon a large vault or crypt. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. II. 36 The devout, as St. Jerome relates, were in the habit of visiting..the tombs of the martyrs in these crypts [the Catacombs]. 1883 S. C. Hall Retrospect II. 207 He [Turner] was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. |
† b. An underground passage or tunnel. Obs.
1667 Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 32, I design'd..the plot of his canall and garden, with a crypt thro' the hill. |
3. transf. and fig. Recess, secret hiding-place.
1833 A. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837) II. 316 [The Ballot] is..the crypt of political honesty. 1842 Tennyson Will Waterproof xxiii, Fall'n into the dusty crypt Of darken'd forms and faces. |
4. Anat. A small simple tubular or saccular gland; a secretory pit or cavity, as in a mucous membrane; a follicle. Also applied to the cavities in the jaw-bones in which the teeth are developed.
1840 Baly tr. Müller's Elem. Physiol. I. 485 Very shallow depressions, such as the simple crypts of the mucous membranes. 1859 J. Tomes Dental Surg. 5 The crypts of the canine teeth. |
5. Comb., as crypt-house.
1873 Tristram Moab vi. 182 There are many caves which have been used as dwellings, and several crypt houses. |