noun.
An underground cemetery consisting of chambers or tunnels with recesses for graves.
noun.
An underground, often labyrinthine passageway.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
noun.
Originally, the name of a locality near Rome, the “Hollows,” in which the church of St. Sebastian, with extensive burial-vaults, was built; but afterward applied to the vaults themselves, and to similar underground burial-places.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
noun.
A cave, grotto, or subterraneous place of large extent used for the burial of the dead; -- commonly in the plural.
noun.
An undergroundsystem of tunnels and chambers with recesses for graves, used (in formertimes) as a cemetery; a subterranean tunnel system used for burying the dead, as in Paris or ancient Rome.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun.
an underground tunnel with recesses where bodies were buried (as in ancient Rome)
Word Usage
"The term catacomb was applied to these subterranean cemeteries at a much later period."