Also 1 byrʓere, 4 by-, birier, 6 buriar, 6–9 buryer. [OE. byrʓere, f. byriʓ-an to BURY + -ere, -ER1.] a. One who buries; † b. a grave-digger; also dead-burier.
c. 1050. Voc., in Wr-Wülcker, 468. Per uispellones þurh byrʓeras.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xxxix. 15. Thei shuln sette a title … bisidis it [a boon of man] til that byriers byrye it.
1535. Coverdale, Amos vi. 10. The deed buriers shall take them, and cary awaye their bones.
1598. Florio, Sepellitore, a burier, a digger of graues to burie the dead.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 32. The buriers and mourners gape for him.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1884), 52. The … buryers of the Dead … were … terrify’d.
1798. Monthly Rev., XXVII. 496. Amid the carcases wander Slowly the buriers.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps, I. i. 27. Secret buryers.
