funereal

• funeral (uncommon)

From Middle French funerail, from Latin funereus +‎ -al.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fjuːˈnɪəɹɪ.əl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

funereal (comparative more funereal, superlative most funereal)

1. Of or relating to a funeral.

   Synonym: funerary

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], pages 293–294:

     From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.

   • 2000, George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 474:

     Seven were chosen to push the funereal boat to the water, in honor of the seven faces of god.

2. Similar to or befitting the mood or elements of a funeral: slow; black colors; formal; dignified or solemn.
   • 1786, [William Beckford], translated by [Samuel Henley], An Arabian Tale, from an Unpublished Manuscript: […] [Vathek], new edition, London: […] W. Clarke, […], published 1809, →OCLC, page 196:

     A funereal gloom prevailed over the whole ſcene.

   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness:

     There was something menacing and uncomfortable in the funereal stillness, in the muffled, subtle trickle of distant brooks, and in the crowding green peaks and black-wooded precipices that choked the narrow horizon.