Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Charnel \Char"nel\, a. [F. charnel carnal, fleshly, fr. L.
carnalis. See Carnal.]
Containing the bodies of the dead. ``Charnel vaults.''
--Milton.
Charnel house, a tomb, vault, cemetery, or other place where the bones of the dead are deposited; originally, a place for the bones thrown up when digging new graves in old burial grounds.
Wiktionary
n. a vault or other building in which the bones of the dead are stored
WordNet
n. a vault or building where corpses or bones are deposited [syn: charnel]
Wikipedia
A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves. The term can also be used more generally as a description of a place filled with death and destruction.
Charnel House is a horror fiction publishing house, specializing in limited edition books noted for their craftsmanship. Examples being The Regulators (1996, by Stephen King writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman) which featured bullets protruding from the front board and Last Call (1992, by Tim Powers) which featured endpapers made from untrimmed sheets of American dollar bills. Several of their releases are unavailable in any other format.
Usage examples of "charnel house".
Seregil had told him, kindly leaving unsaid the fact that Alec had shouted himself awake every night since their charnel house tour.
But never had he expected the Cimmerian to revert to his barbarism and turn the palace into a charnel house.
The smell of the charnel house permeated the air, cutting through even the few measures that he had the time to take against the odor of chilling and decay.
The crypt below Gent had become a charnel house during the Eika occupation, and few dared walk there.
Walking into the charnel house, Kawa was perversely grateful he had had to kill a man that night, otherwise the sights and smells in there would surely have blown his mind to smithereens.