BURIAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does burial mean? 

• BURIAL (noun)
  The noun BURIAL has 2 senses:

1. the ritual placing of a corpse in a grave

2. concealing something under the ground

  Familiarity information: BURIAL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BURIAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The ritual placing of a corpse in a grave

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

burial; entombment; inhumation; interment; sepulture

Hypernyms ("burial" is a kind of...):

funeral; obsequy (a ceremony at which a dead person is buried or cremated)

Derivation:

bury (place in a grave or tomb)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Concealing something under the ground

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

burial; burying

Hypernyms ("burial" is a kind of...):

concealing; concealment; hiding (the activity of keeping something secret)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "burial"):

reburial; reburying (the act of burying again)

Derivation:

bury (place in the earth and cover with soil)

 Context examples 

This necropolis is made up of at least 17 tholos‑type tombs –places used for collective burials– that were excavated between 1968 and 1971.

(The necropolis of El Barranquete in Níjar (Almería), proven to have been used for funerary rituals throughout the Bronze Age, University of Granada)

The minister said one tomb has five entrances that lead to a rectangular hall where two burial shafts are located on the northern and southern sides of the tomb.

(Discovery of Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Announced in Egypt, VOA)

Inside are burial chambers reached via a corridor or passageway.

(Analysis of the Palaeolithic diet finds that, in the prehistoric age, for thousands of years there were no social divisions in food consumption, University of Granada)

By my hilt! it is a burial, and there is a passing bell!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After breakfast next morning, when I had hoisted Wolf Larsen’s body on deck ready for burial, it was still blowing heavily and a large sea was running.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

All the poor lady's papers were in order; explicit directions regarding the place of burial were given.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A domain that stabilizes alpha helices in proteins through a very efficient burial of hydrophobic side chains so that polar water molecules do not access them.

(Coiled-Coil Domain, NCI Thesaurus)

Then he seemed quite inspired, though the burial customs of the ancients, to which the conversation had strayed, might not be considered an exhilarating topic.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It points also to an orthodox burial with proper accompaniment of medical certificate and official sanction.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A day or two before the burial—I think it was a day or two before, but I am conscious of confusion in my mind about that heavy time, with nothing to mark its progress—she took me into the room.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)