tomb

¹tomb

noun \ˈtüm\

Definition of TOMB

1

a : an excavation in which a corpse is buried : grave

b : a place of interment

2

: a house, chamber, or vault for the dead

3

: a building or structure resembling a tomb (as in appearance)

— tomb·less \-ləs\ adjective

Examples of TOMB

1. the tomb of Alexander the Great
2. <explored the historic graveyard and saw tombs that dated back two centuries>

Origin of TOMB

Middle English tombe, from Anglo-French tumbe, from Late Latin tumba sepulchral mound, from Greek tymbos; perhaps akin to Latin tumēre to be swollen — more at thumb

First Known Use: 13th century

Related to TOMB

Synonyms

burial, sepulchre (or sepulcher), sepulture, grave

Related Words

catacomb, charnel (also charnel house), columbarium, crypt, mausoleum, vault; cemetery, churchyard, graveyard, potter's field; barrow, mound, tumulus

Rhymes with TOMB

bloom, boom, broom, brume, combe, cwm, doom, flume, fume, gloom, glume, groom, khoum, loom, neume, plume, rheum, room, spume, toom, vroom, whom, womb, zoom

²tomb

transitive verb

Definition of TOMB

: bury, entomb

Examples of TOMB

1. <Forest Lawn is where many of Tinseltown's immortals are tombed for all eternity.>

First Known Use of TOMB

14th century

Related to TOMB

Synonyms

entomb, hearse, inhume, inter, lay, put away, bury

Antonyms

disinter, exhume, unearth

Related Words

immure, inurn; enshrine; conceal, cover, ensconce, hide; obscure, shade, shield; cloak, curtain, enshroud, shroud; rebury, reinter; coffin

Near Antonyms

burn, cremate; bare, disclose, discover, display, exhibit, expose, reveal, show; uncoffin

tomb

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Home or house for the dead. The term is applied loosely to all kinds of graves, funerary monuments, and memorials. Prehistoric tomb burial mounds, or barrows (artificial hills of earth and stones piled over the remains), were usually built around a hut containing personal effects for use in the afterlife. Burial mounds were a prominent feature of the Tumulus period in Japan (3rd–6th century); these often spectacular monuments consisted of earthen keyhole-shaped mounds surrounded by moats. Burial mounds, sometimes shaped like animals, were characteristic also of Indian cultures of eastern central North America c. 1000 BC–AD 700. With more advanced technology, brick and stone tombs appeared, often of imposing size. In Egypt tombs assumed great importance, especially in the form of pyramids. In medieval Christian thought, the tomb became a symbol of a heavenly home; this concept appeared in the Roman catacombs, whose walls display scenes of paradise. Since the Renaissance, the idea of the tomb as a home has died out in the West, except as a faint reminiscence in the mausoleums or vaults of modern cemeteries. See also beehive tomb, cenotaph, mastaba, stele.