arch. [f. LICH corpse + GATE.] The roofed gateway to a churchyard under which the corpse is set down, to await the clergyman’s arrival.
1482–3. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 30. Et sol’. Will’o Sariant Carpent’ pro emend’ le lycheyate, iiijd.
1681. Ashmole, in Lilly’s Life (1774), 162. His coarse was … received by the minister (in his surplice) at the Litch-Gates.
1846. Guide Archit. Antiq. Oxford, 375. A handsome lich-gate of carved oak has been erected at the entrance of the Church-yard.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 824. Yet to the lychgate, where his chariot stood, [He] Strode from the porch.
1875. Jas. Grant, One of the ‘600,’ xviii. 138. The ivy-clad lyke-gate of the village church.
