1. a large vault, typically an underground one, for burying the dead.
▪ an enclosure for a corpse cut in the earth or in rock.
▪ a monument to the memory of a dead person, erected over their burial place.
▪ used in similes and metaphors to refer to a place or situation that is extremely cold, quiet, or dark, or that forms a confining enclosure: "the house was as quiet as a tomb"
▪ death:"none escape the tomb"
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French tombe, from late Latin tumba, from Greek tumbos.
