charnel

[ chahr-nl ]
See synonyms for charnel on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a repository for dead bodies.

adjective
  1. of, like, or fit for a charnel; deathlike; sepulchral.

Origin of charnel

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin carnāle, noun and adjective use of neuter of carnāliscarnal

Words Nearby charnel

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

How to use charnel in a sentence

  • If I think about it for a moment, there are obviously lots of policy implications of Gosnell's baby charnel house.

  • The factory had indeed become a charnel-house, it being useless for the chiefs to admonish their men to keep under cover.

    Rule of the Monk | Giuseppe Garibaldi
  • Its door an entrance to a living charnel-house, its iron-barred windows but the outlook of hell!

    The Boys of '61 | Charles Carleton Coffin.
  • I was in the pit, the abyss, the human cesspool, the shambles and the charnel-house of our civilization.

  • The spectacle now under their eyes was itself sufficiently disagreeable, seeming a very charnel-house.

    The Vee-Boers | Mayne Reid
  • No scavenger shark, no carrion crab, ever chambered more grisly secrets in his digestive processes than this big charnel bird.

    The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. Cobb

British Dictionary definitions for charnel

charnel

/ (ˈtʃɑːnəl) /


noun
  1. short for charnel house

adjective
  1. ghastly; sepulchral; deathly

Origin of charnel

1
C14: from Old French: burial place, from Latin carnālis fleshly, carnal

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