funereal - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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From Middle French funerail, from Latin funereus +‎ -al.

funereal (comparative more funereal, superlative most funereal)

  1. Of or relating to a funeral.
    Synonym: funerary
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, [], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], pages 293–294:

      From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.

    • 2000, George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 474:

      Seven were chosen to push the funereal boat to the water, in honor of the seven faces of god.

  2. Similar to or befitting the mood or elements of a funeral: slow; black colors; formal; dignified or solemn.
    • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness:

      There was something menacing and uncomfortable in the funereal stillness, in the muffled, subtle trickle of distant brooks, and in the crowding green peaks and black-wooded precipices that choked the narrow horizon.

relating to a funeral