What does "charnel" mean?

Charnel: Containing the bodies of the dead. "Charnel vaults." Milton. Charnel house, a tomb, vault, cemetery, or other place where the bones of the dead are deposited; originally, a place for the bones thrown up when digging new graves in old burial grounds.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A charnel house; a grave; a cemetery. In their proud charnel of Thermopylæ. Byron.

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