Forms: 1 byrʓ(e)an, byriʓan, 2 byrien, 3 birrȝenn (Orm.), 3–5 burien, byry(en, birien, 4 birin, 5 byryyn, byryn, beryyn, berry, 3–5 biry, beri(e, 4–6 bery, byry, (6 byrry, byrrey, burrey, burry, burye, bewry, 7 buerie, bure), 4 burye, 4–7 burie, 4– bury. Also Sc. 5 beryss, 6 berisch. [OE. byrʓan wk. v.:—WGer. *burgjan (of which the only other trace is the OS. derivative burgisli sb. = BURIELS), app. f. burg- ablaut-stem of OTeut. *berg-an str. v. to protect, cover: see BERGH v. The Scotch forms beryss, berisch, appear to follow the analogy of words from French like peryss, perisch.]
1. To deposit (a corpse) in the ground, tomb; to inter. Hence to commit (a corpse) to the sea, with appropriate funeral rites.
a. 1000. Hymns (Gr.), x. 29. Þone ʓeomormod Josep byriʓde.
1154. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1137. § 7. & sythen byrieden him.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2520. Hise oðre breðere … Woren ybiried at ebron.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 489. He deit soyn, and beryit was.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13674. Ascatus … Gert bryng hom to burgh, birit hom faire.
c. 1440. York Myst., xvii. 285. Sen thy body beryed shalbe, This mirre will I giffe to þi grauyng.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech., 51. Thame that will nocht berisch or erde the bodis of thair freindis on the North part of the kirk yard.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 155. Ile be buryed in the Kings high-way.
1635. Tom a Lincolne, II. in Thoms’ E. E. Prose Rom. (1858), II. 344. Buring him inhumanly upon a dunghill.
1852. Tennyson, Ode on Wellington, 1. Let us bury the Great Duke.
b. Said of the surviving relatives: hence, To have buried (one’s relatives) = to have lost them by death.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 215, ¶ 4. My elder Sister buried her Husband about Six Months ago.
1723. S. Morland, Spec. Lat. Dict., 11. To Bury, as one buries his Relations when he survives them, Efferre.
c. Said of the religious functionary who celebrates the rites that accompany interment.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 51. So no þing be askid … for dead to be byried.
1401. Pol. Poems & Songs (1859), II. 87. Whi … wil we not … birien the pore as wel as the riche?
Mod. ‘I never object to bury a dissenter; indeed I should be most happy to bury them all.’
d. absol.
1552–3. Inv. Ch. Goods Staffs., in Ann. Diocese Lichfield, IV. 46. Xls. peyd to the bysshope for his laysance to byrrey.
1854. Cdl. Wiseman, Fabiola, II. xi. 145. There is no evidence of the Christians having buried anywhere, anteriorly to the construction of catacombs.
e. fig.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 51. Hwenne þu scrift underuongest þenne buriest þu þine sunnen.
1382. Wyclif, Rom. vi. 4. We ben to gidere biried with him bi cristendom in to deeth.
a. 1555. Lyndesay, Trag., 427. Ȝe Prencis and Prelatis … Sall bureit be in hell.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 423. Thou didst kil my Children. But in your daughters wombe I bury them.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), I. iii. 119. His first care must have been to bury the evidence in the graves of his associates.
1875. Jowett, Plato, Gorgias (ed. 2), II. 393. He would bury you under a mountain of words.
2. To put under ground for the same purposes as a corpse, e.g., to bury a person alive; to consign to the ground any carcase, decaying organized matter, rubbish, etc.; also, other things, in sign of their final abandonment or abrogation. To bury the hatchet: to put away strife, settle a quarrel, in allusion to the American-Indian ceremony of burying a tomahawk on the conclusion of a peace.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xxii. 19. As an Asse shall he be buried.
1610. Shaks., Temp., V. i. 55. I’le breake my staffe, Bury it certaine fadomes in the earth.
1884. Sophie Swett, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 412/2. Mary Ann she buried the hatchet an’ went an’ took care of him.
b. fig. To consign to oblivion, put out of the way, abandon and forget.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., IV. i. 55. In your Bride you bury Brotherhood. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., IV. iii. 159. Giue me a bowl of wine, In this I bury all vnkindnesse Cassius.
1670. J. Law, Lett., in Lauderdale Papers (1885), III. App. i. 234. To burie presbiterian government with their oun consent.
1712. Addr. Cambridge, in Lond. Gaz., No. 5027/5. May Faction be buried.
1885. A. B. Ellis, W. Afric. Isl., xi. 263. The natives … had buried their own differences and united to repel the invaders.
c. To consign to a position of obscurity, inaccessibility or inaction; often refl. and pass.
1711. Vind. Sacheverell, 74. It would be a pity to bury so promising a young Gentleman in such a place.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 186. I looked upon myself as one buried alive in a remote part of the world.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 100, ¶ 1. Many well disposed persons … are so unfortunate as to be totally buried in the country.
1782. Cowper, Truth, 443. Sorrow might … Bury herself in solitude profound.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth (1860), 5. To retire from the world and bury herself in the recesses of the cloister.
3. Without restriction of purpose: To deposit or hide under ground; to cover up with earth or other material.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 16919 (Fairf.). Þe Iewis … beried [tho crossis] fro Crysten men in a preuy stede.
1530. Palsgr., 451/1. It is the propertye of a dogge to burye his meate in the grounde.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xviii. (1870), 277. Bake meate … is buryd in paast.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 378. A Bottle of Beer, buried in like manner as before, became more lively.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 547. The frozen Earth lyes buried there, below A hilly Heap, seven Cubits deep in Snow.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Burial, Chemists sometimes bury their cements.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., 53. So I took the money … and buried 3000 pieces of gold.
b. Of things: To cover over out of sight, to submerge.
1737. Miller, Gard. Dict. (1759), s.v. Cedrus, This wood … resisting gun shots, and burying the shot without splintering.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 272. The seas that are said … in a manner to bury the house in time of storms. Ibid., § 273. The two stones together would compleatly … bury the cramps.
4. To plunge or sink deep in, so as to cover from view; to put out of sight; also in phrases, to bury one’s face in one’s hands, one’s hands in one’s pockets, etc.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 45. The riuer that is buried vnder the earth, twentie miles off appeareth againe.
1710. Addison, Whig-Exam., No. 4, ¶ 1. As well assault an army that is buried in intrenchments.
1815. Byron, Heb. Melodies, Song of Saul, i. Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxxiii. 299. Taking a pin … he buried it to the head in her flesh.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xxv. 312. Hypatia sat still in her chamber, her face buried in her hands.
b. intr. for refl. or pass. To burrow; also Mech. to lie embedded or enclosed.
1841. Johnston, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. No. 9. 266. The animal buries in sand.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 124. Those ends of the planks which bury in the rabbets.
c. fig.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. viii. 39. The inward book of lawe of kinde, biried in mannis soule and herte.
1712. Berkeley, Pass. Obed., § 9. Wks. 1871, III. 113. Every man’s particular rule is buried in his own breast.
1855. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Hist., ii. 61. The truth, that now is buried beneath the mass of the old British legends.
5. pass. To be profoundly absorbed or engrossed in a habit or practice.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Tracts, xviii. Wks. (1880), 271. Prelatis & peynted religious beried in here olde synne.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1621), 654. Charles the emperour resolved … to passe over into Affricke, whilest Solyman was yet buried in the Persian wars.
1868. Tennyson, Lucretius, 9. His mind Half buried in some weightier argument.
