ˈcharnel-house
A house for dead bodies; a house or vault in which the bones of the dead are piled up.
| 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (1852) 57 This yere [1548] was put downe the chappell with the charnell howse in Powlles church yerde..and a iiij. or v. C. lode of bones carred in to the feldes and burryd there. 1578 T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 206 The Charnell house, or place of dead mens sculles for remembrance of death. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. xv. 88 Golgotha, the charnell house of the city. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 101 A Charnel House. The Corpses are let down into it from the top. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 655 The sight of a human skull and bones in a charnel-house. 1859 Jephson Brittany iv. 40 These charnel-houses or ossuary chapels are general. |
| attrib. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxiii, Said Mrs. Crummles in the same charnel-house voice. |