Definition of "charnel" [char•nel]

• A repository for the bones or bodies of the dead; a charnel house. (noun)
• Resembling, suggesting, or suitable for receiving the dead. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "His chamber is hung commonly with strange beasts skins, and is a kind of charnel-house of bones extraordinary; and his discourse upon them, if you will hear him, shall last longer."
• "Emperor, was allowed to enter a kind of charnel-house, and to see what had been the lovely gaily-painted vellums lying squalidly piled in heaps."
• "First, the cave is frequented by wild beasts, who make it a kind of charnel-house."