graveclothes

[ greyv-klohz, -klohthz ]

plural noun

1. the clothes clothes or wrappings in which a body is buried; cerements.

Word History and Origins

Origin of graveclothes¹

First recorded in 1525–35; grave ¹ + clothes

Example Sentences

So, when he was already old enough to understand life and its beauty, he was suddenly transported to the midst of it, just where it was most beautiful; and because he instantly saw that his master's art was unreal and far removed from truth, dead, as it were, and bound hand and foot in the graveclothes of Byzantine tradition, his first impulse was to wake the dead in a blaze of life.

From Project Gutenberg

Such stories were rare in those days of pirates, Indians, and ghosts, the latter of whom were supposed to make their homes in their graves and to come forth in their graveclothes, and to set the hearts of unquiet souls to beating, and like feet to flying with electrical swiftness before the days of electricity.

From Project Gutenberg

God, they think, is either Absentee, or the Creature of Laws, which He established, and which now hold Him, as the graveclothes held Lazarus.

From Project Gutenberg

And Lazarus heard, wherever he was, and, though his feet were tangled with the graveclothes, he came stumbling out, because the power to do what he was bid had come wrapped in the command to do it.

From Project Gutenberg

Out he comes, and if you look up at one end of the coffin he is leaving, you may see the graveclothes he wore when first he went to sleep.

From Project Gutenberg