funereal

comparative more funereal · superlative most funereal · alternative uncommon funeral

1. Of or relating to a funeral.

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

   2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Catelyn [Stark]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 392

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   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.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], pages 293–294

   Synonyms: funerary

2. figurativelySimilar to or befitting the mood or elements of a funeral: slow; black colors; formal; dignified or solemn.

   A funereal gloom prevailed over the whole ſcene.

   Vathek

   1786, [William Beckford], translated by [Samuel Henley], An Arabian Tale, from an Unpublished Manuscript: […] [Vathek], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 196

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   "Sounds curst funereal, Zeb! O my poor nunky! Go fetch 'em, Sergeant, and let me see 'em—'twill distress and pain me I know but—go fetch 'em!"

   1918, Jeffery Farnol, Our Admirable Betty

   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.

   1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness