subs. phr. (colloquial).—1. The human body.
1870. EMERSON, Society and Solitude, vi., 119. This wonderful BONE-HOUSE which is called man.
2. (common).—A coffin: also a charnel-house. Americans generally call a cemetery a bone-yard.
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, II., 207. Nothing soon—lie in bed—starve—die—inquest—little BONE-HOUSE—poor prisoner.
1846. WALBRAN, Guide Ripon. The celebrated BONE-HOUSE no longer exists.
1848. FORSTER, The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, II., 165 (bk. IV., ch. viii.). The body [of a man who had poisoned himself] was taken to the BONE-HOUSE of St. Andrew’s, but no one came to claim it.
