Definitions

1. noun

A place where dead bodies are kept or a collection of skulls or bones, especially those of people who have died from a particular disease.

“The charnel house in the old cemetery was a place of both reverence and dread.”

2. verb

To store or bury the dead in a charnel house.

“The village was said to have been charnelled by a devastating plague.”

3. noun

A gruesome or disturbing collection of things, especially bones or skulls.

“The charnel of war left a nation in mourning and destruction.”