tomb

[ toom ]
See synonyms for tomb on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an excavation in earth or rock for the burial of a corpse; grave.

  2. a mausoleum, burial chamber, or the like.

  1. a monument for housing or commemorating a dead person.

  2. any sepulchral structure.

verb (used with object)
  1. to place in or as if in a tomb; entomb; bury.

Origin of tomb

1
1225–75; Middle English tumbe<Anglo-French; Old French tombe<Late Latin tumba<Greek týmbos burial mound; akin to Latin tumēre to swell. See tumor, tumulus

Other words from tomb

  • tombal, adjective
  • tombless, adjective
  • tomblike, adjective
  • un·tombed, adjective

Words Nearby tomb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tomb in a sentence

  • Taking half a dozen men with him, and compelling the woman to act as guide, he went to the tomb in the dark.

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy
  • D'Israeli loved the long pipe in his youth, but in middle age pronounced it 'the tomb of love.'

  • Over the tomb is placed a herse of iron, furnished with stands for holding lighted candles or torches.

  • And it seemed to Tom that his cousin came upon them out of the heart of a dream, out of the earth, out of a sandy tomb.

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood
  • Thebes was a single, enormous tomb; his past lay buried there; from the solemn, mournful, desolate hills he had escaped.

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood

British Dictionary definitions for tomb

tomb

/ (tuːm) /


noun
  1. a place, esp a vault beneath the ground, for the burial of a corpse

  2. a stone or other monument to the dead

  1. the tomb a poetic term for death

  2. anything serving as a burial place: the sea was his tomb

verb
  1. (tr) rare to place in a tomb; entomb

Origin of tomb

1
C13: from Old French tombe, from Late Latin tumba burial mound, from Greek tumbos; related to Latin tumēre to swell, Middle Irish tomm hill

Derived forms of tomb

  • tomblike, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012