Morthouse
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Morthouse is a noun meaning A specialised secure building usually located in a churchyard where bodies were temporarily interred before a formal funeral took place.
Meaning
A specialised secure building usually located in a churchyard where bodies were temporarily interred before a formal funeral took place.
Example Sentences
Morthouses were sturdily built, with iron linings on wooden doors, even a skin of steel within the whole structure in some cases.
That the bodies of all persons dying in these towns, and, if need be, in all other towns, and also in country parishes, unclaimable by immediate relatives, or whose relatives decline to defray the expenses of interment, shall be conveyed to a morthouse appointed in the said towns for their reception.
From burial grounds in the heart of Glasgow to quiet country graveyards in Aberdeenshire, this book takes you to every cemetery ever raided, and reveals where you can find extant pieces of anti-resurrectionist graveyard furniture, from mortsafes, coffin cages and underground vaults to watchtowers and morthouses.
Word Forms
- morthouses
- mort house
- mort-house
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.