funeral

plural funerals · alternative obsolete funerall

1. A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the body of the deceased.

   Many mourners turned up at the local artist's funeral to pay homage.

   1 more example

   The taking Away of Righteous & Merciful Perſons muſt be taken to Heart, APPLIED IN A SERMON AT THE FUNERALLS OF Mʳⁱˢ ANNE-MARY CHILD. Wife of THOMAS CHILD Eſq. of North-wick in the Pariſh of Blockley. Worceſter-ſhire.[…]TO THE Exemplarily Vertuous Gentle-woman, his much honoured friend, Mʳˢ ANNE CHILD, Eldeſt daughter of THOMAS CHILD of Northwicke Eſquire. AS I mean not an exerciſe for your modeſty by a flattering Epiſtle, ſo neither doe I intend the renewing of your ſorrows, by preſenting you with the plaine Sermon preach’t at the funerals of your bleſſed Mother.

   1661, Giles Collier, The Taking Away of Righteous & Merciful Persons Must Be Taken to Heart, Applied in a Sermon at the Funeralls of Mʳⁱˢ Anne-Mary Child. […], Oxford: […] William Hall

2. datedin pluralA funeral sermon.

comparative more funeral · superlative most funeral · alternative obsolete funerall

1. alternativenot comparableuncommonusuallyAlternative spelling of funereal.

   All was funeral gloom and hope never whispered its cheering promises there.

   1852, Benson John Lossing, The Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution, page 367

   3 more examples

   Indeed I felt it altogether beautiful; and, as the "dying day-hymn stole aloft," the dim sun-beams fell, through a vista of naked motionless trees, upon the coffin, which was borne with a slower and more funeral pace than before, in a manner that threw a solemn and visionary light upon the whole procession.

   1869, William Carleton, Tubber Derg: Or, The Red Well, page 166

   There was something dramatic and theatrical in the very funeral ceremonies with which Demetrius was honored.

   1888, Plutarch's Lives: The Translation Called Dryden's - Volume 5, page 153

   The very funeral pageantry disguised behind-the-scenes struggles for control over Sidney's image.

   1998, Lisa M. Klein, The Exemplary Sidney and the Elizabethan Sonneteer, page 15