Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To place (a corpse) in a grave, a tomb, or the sea; inter.
  • transitive verb To dispose of (a corpse) ritualistically by means other than interment or cremation.
  • transitive verb To place in the ground; cover with earth.
  • transitive verb To place so as to conceal; hide or obscure.
  • transitive verb To occupy (oneself) with deep concentration; absorb.
  • transitive verb To put an end to; abandon.
  • transitive verb Slang To outdo or defeat by a large margin.
  • idiom (bury the hatchet) To stop fighting; resolve a quarrel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A delicate pear of several varieties.
  • noun Soft shale or clay; flucan.
  • noun A castle, manor-house, or habitation; a borough.
  • noun A burrow.
  • noun A camp or heap of turnips or the like, stored up.
  • To deposit and inclose in a grave or tomb, as a dead body; consign to any final resting-place after or as after death; entomb.
  • To cover or conceal from sight; sink or lodge in or under anything: as, to bury treasures in the earth or under rubbish; he buried the dagger in his enemy's heart.
  • Hence To cover up; keep secret; hide; conceal.
  • To withdraw or conceal in retirement: as, lo bury one's self in a monastery or in solitude.
  • To hide in oblivion; put away finally from one's thoughts: as, to bury an injury.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cover out of sight, either by heaping something over, or by placing within something, as earth, etc.; to conceal by covering; to hide.
  • transitive verb Specifically: To cover out of sight, as the body of a deceased person, in a grave, a tomb, or the ocean; to deposit (a corpse) in its resting place, with funeral ceremonies; to inter; to inhume.
  • transitive verb To hide in oblivion; to put away finally; to abandon.
  • transitive verb (Zoöl.) the general name of many species of beetles, of the tribe Necrophaga; the sexton beetle; -- so called from their habit of burying small dead animals by digging away the earth beneath them. The larvæ feed upon decaying flesh, and are useful scavengers.
  • transitive verb to lay aside the instruments of war, and make peace; -- a phrase used in allusion to the custom observed by the North American Indians, of burying a tomahawk when they conclude a peace.
  • noun A borough; a manor
  • noun Prov. Eng. A manor house; a castle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A borough; a manor
  • verb To ritualistically inter a corpse in a grave or tomb. (see burial)
  • verb To place in the ground. "bury a bone"
  • verb To hide or conceal as if by covering with earth - "she buried her face in the pillow", "buried the secret deep inside"
  • verb figuratively To put an end to; to abandon. "They buried their argument and shook hands"
  • verb figuratively To score a goal

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cover from sight
  • verb embed deeply
  • verb dismiss from the mind; stop remembering
  • verb place in the earth and cover with soil
  • verb enclose or envelop completely, as if by swallowing
  • verb place in a grave or tomb

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English burien, from Old English byrgan; see bhergh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See borough.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English burien, berien, from Old English byrġan, from Proto-Germanic *burgijanan (cf. Old Norse byrgja ‘to close’), from *berganan (“to protect, shelter”) (cf. Old English beorgan, West Frisian bergje ‘to keep’, German bergen ‘to save/rescue something’), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerĝʰ, *bʰr̥ĝʰ (cf. Albanian mburojë ("shield"), Lithuanian (Eastern) bir̃ginti ‘to save, spare’, Russian беречь (bereč') ‘to spare’, Ossetian æмбæрзын (æmbærzyn, "to cover").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bury.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Along with choir, a leading candidate for the "unpredictable vowel" award.

    July 19, 2011

  • Oo, oo! Is there an unpredictable vowel list?

    July 20, 2011