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sepulchre

 - 5 dictionary results

sep⋅ul⋅chre

  [sep-uhl-ker]
Use sepulchre in a Sentence
–noun, verb (used with object), -chred, -chring. Chiefly British.
sepulcher.

sep⋅ul⋅cher

  [sep-uhl-ker]
–noun
1. a tomb, grave, or burial place.
2. Also called Easter sepulcher. Ecclesiastical.
a. a cavity in a mensa for containing relics of martyrs.
b. a structure or a recess in some old churches in which the Eucharist was deposited with due ceremonies on Good Friday and taken out at Easter in commemoration of Christ's entombment and Resurrection.
–verb (used with object)
3. to place in a sepulcher; bury.
Also, especially British, sepulchre.

Origin:
1150–1200; ME sepulcre < OF < L sepulcrum, equiv. to sepul- (var. stem of sepelīre to bury) + -crum n. suffix of place

Synonyms:
1. vault, mausoleum, crypt.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To sepulchre
sep·ul·chre   (sěp'əl-kər)   
n.   & v. Chiefly British
Variant of sepulcher.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

sepulcher 
c.1200, "tomb, burial place," esp. the cave where Jesus was buried outside Jerusalem (Holy Sepulcher or Saint Sepulcher), from O.Fr. sepulcre (11c.), from L. sepulcrum "grave, tomb," from root of sepelire "to bury," originally "to perform rituals on a corpse" (cf. Skt. saparyati "honors"). No reason for the -ch- spelling. Sepulchral "gloomy" is from 1711.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Bible Dictionary

Sepulchre

first mentioned as purchased by Abraham for Sarah from Ephron the Hittite (Gen. 23:20). This was the "cave of the field of Machpelah," where also Abraham and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah were burried (79:29-32). In Acts 7:16 it is said that Jacob was "laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem." It has been proposed, as a mode of reconciling the apparent discrepancy between this verse and Gen. 23:20, to read Acts 7:16 thus: "And they [i.e., our fathers] were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor [the son] of Sychem." In this way the purchase made by Abraham is not to be confounded with the purchase made by Jacob subsequently in the same district. Of this purchase by Abraham there is no direct record in the Old Testament. (See TOMB.)

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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