A house for dead bodies; a house or vault in which the bones of the dead are piled up.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 57. This yere [1548], was put downe the chappell with the charnell howse in Powlles church yerde … and a iiij. or v. C. lode of bones carred in to the feldes and burryd there.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 206. The Charnell house or place of dead mens sculles for remembrance of death.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. xv. 88. Golgotha, the charnell house of the city.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 101. A Charnel House. The Corpses are let down into it from the top.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 655. The sight of a human skull and bones in a charnel-house.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, iv. 40. These charnel-houses or ossuary chapels are general.
attrib. 1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxiii. Said Mrs. Crummles in the same charnel-house voice.
