Forms: 3 biriel, 4–6 bery-, beri-, buryel, -ell, -elle, -all, -alle, 5–6 byryall, -ele, -elle, 6 bereall, 6–7 buriall, 6– burial. [ME. buryel, biriel, incorrectly formed as a sing. of byriels, BURIELS, q.v.; in later times associated with sbs. in -al from Fr., such as espousal-s.]
† 1. A burying-place, grave or tomb. Obs.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2488. Ðor is ðat liche in biriele don.
1388. Wyclif, 2 Kings xxiii. 17. And the kyng seide, What is this biriel, which Y se?
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xxviii. (1495), 430. The nyghte owle hauntyth and dwellyth in buryels.
c. 1450. trans. Higden (1865), I. 415. There is a maruellous berielle … in Weste Wales.
1535. Coverdale, Neh. ii. 5. I beseke the sende me … vnto ye cite of my fathers buryall [1611 sepulchres].
1612. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), 499 (Jam.). And thairfore the said Revestrie was disponit to Schir James Dundas of Arnestoun knycht to be ane buriall for him and his posteritie.
fig. 1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. i. 29. Vailing her high top lower then her ribs To kisse her buriall.
2. The act of burying; interment; funeral.
1453. Test. Ebor. (1855), II. 171. To the kyrk-wark for my beriall, xxs. Ibid. (1467), II. 278. The day of my beriall.
1549. Bk. Com. Prayer, The Order for the Burial of the Dead.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. i. 2. Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall, that wilfully seekes her owne saluation.
1611. Bible, Jer. xxii. 19. He shall be buried with the buriall of an asse.
1647. F. Bland, Souldiers March Salv., 35. To commend his body to due burials.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Christian Burial, that performed in holy ground, and with the usual service or ceremonies of the church…. Burial of an ass, Asini sepultura, an ignominious kind of burial, out of holy ground, under the gallows, or in a high way, where several roads meet, and performed by public hangmen, or the like. Such is that of suicides, excommunicated persons, &c., sometimes denoted canine burial, or burial of a dog.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. vi. 513. The body received a second burial.
b. transf. and fig.
1603. Drayton, Bar. Warres, VI. xcvi. Which in this Bosom shall their Buriall have.
1878. Morley, Diderot, II. 50. The burial of men and women alive in the cloister.
c. pl. Formerly in computations, etc., of mortality, which were based on the entries of burials: = Deaths.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith., 1. The Medium of the Burials at London in the three last years … was 22337.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Burials, in computations of mortality, denote deaths, and stand opposed to births.
1782. Burke, Sk. Negro Code, Wks. IX. 305. Every Minister shall keep a register of births, burials and marriages.
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 408. During the same months of the year 1803, the burials amounted to 238.
3. The depositing of anything under earth or water, or enclosing it in some other substance.
a. 1626. Bacon, New Atlantis (1635), 33. We have great lakes, both salt and fresh; we use them for burials of some natural bodies.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Some commend burials in the earth, others in wheat, to season timber when first felled, and make it of more durable use.
4. Comb. and Attrib., as burial-cake, -chamber, -cloth, -clothes, -feast, -field, -law, -office, -procession, -torch, -truce, -urn, -vault.
1864. A. McKay, Hist. Kilmarnock, 194. He ordered twelve dozen of *burial-cakes.
1871. Alger, Future Life, 94. Along the sides of the *burial-chamber were ranged massive stone shelves.
1570–1. Old City Acc. Bk. (Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII.). Rd. for the *bwryall cloth of mr. peke, xvjd.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., II. xxii. 75. I had better put my *burial-clothes in my portmanteau and set off at once.
1579. Fulke, Refut. Rastel, 798. They called together the people … to their *buriall feastes.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. v. 87. Our wedding cheare, to a sad buriall Feast.
1742. R. Blair, Grave, 484. What is this world? What but a spacious *burial-field unwall’d!
1880. *Burial Law Amendment Act.
1871. Alger, Future Life, 93. Perceiving their [Etruscans’] *burial-processions and funeral festivals.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 109, ¶ 1. Three Men with *Burial Torches.
1862. Grote, Greece, V. II. lvi. 76. Granting the customary *burial-truce to the defeated enemy.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 76. A *burial-vault the whole length of the church.
5. Special Comb.: burial-aisle, an aisle in a religious building used for interments, also fig.; burial-board, a body of persons appointed by public authority to regulate burials; burial-case, a shaped coffin, made to close air-tight, for the preservation of a corpse; burial-hill, -mound, a mound erected over a grave, a tumulus, barrow; burial-service, a religious service accompanying a burial; a form of words prescribed by ecclesiastical authority to be used at funerals; esp. that used in the Church of England; burial-society, an insurance society for providing money for the expenses of burial; burial-stone, a stone on a grave, a tomb-stone; burial-yard, burial-ground, grave-yard. Also BURIAL-GROUND, -PLACE.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xxxviii. To send his body and his heart to be buried in Avenel *burial-aisle.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. xi. 88. Looks he also wistfully into the long burial-aisle of the Past.
c. 1600. Norden, Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728), 70. He was a digging a borowe or *buriall hill.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., 210. Stumbling among *burial-mounds and tombstones, he had toppled into an open grave.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, 63. The tumuli or ancient burial-mounds.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 132. If it be not … prohibited … by a Rubrick of the *Burial-Service.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, v. The reverend gentleman … read as much of the burial-service as could be compressed into four minutes.
1857. Geo. Eliot, Cleric. Life, xxxvii. 329. The faces were not hard at this funeral; the burial-service was not a hollow form.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 756. Hoc poliandrum, a *byryelston.
1864. Skeat, trans. Uhland’s Poems, 117. Engraven on this burial-stone Two hands together clasped you view.
1842. Miall, in Nonconf., II. 33. The same authority demands a *burial-yard rate.
Hence Burialer, one who assists at a burial.
1833. Hogg, in Fraser’s Mag., VI. 166. The burialers … were lying powerless … beside the corpse of their dead relative.
