Now rare. Forms: see the sb. [f. TOMB sb.: cf. It. tombare to entomb.]
1. trans. To deposit (a body) in the tomb; to lay in the grave, bury, inter, entomb.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 48. He lies a Glastenbire toumbed, as I wene.
14[?]. Sir Beues (M.) 4321. He towmbed ham to geder in ffere, Kyng and quene as they were.
1475. Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.), 45. And there made his faire ende at Rone, where he liethe tombid.
1591. Greene, Maidens Dreame, Wks. (Grosart), XIV. 316. Let that [body] be earthed and tombed in gorgeous wise.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXIII. 305. Imagine them some monument, of one long since tomb’d there.
1759. W. Mason, Caractacus, Poems (1773), 256. Ye can tomb me in this sacred place.
1899. J. Lumsden, Poems, 16. In the Atlantic’s bed Tombed ten leagues deep.
b. in fig. senses of ‘bury.’
1611. Heywood, Gold. Age, I. i. Wks. 1874, III. 13. I’le toombe th’ usurper in his Infant bloud.
1613. Marston, Insat. Countess, I. i. [I’ll bury thee] In the Swans downe, and tombe thee in mine armes.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, II. xviii. There dig and tomb your precious heap, And bid the dead your treasure keep.
2. To enclose or contain as a tomb; to serve as a tomb for. Hence Tombing ppl. a.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. Wks. 1724, II. 512. The Stone that tombs the Two.
1865. Tennyson, On a Mourner, vi. And when no mortal motion jars The blackness round the tombing sod,… Comes Faith from tract no feet have trod.
