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. |