lych-gaten.
/ˈlɪtʃɡeɪt/, U.S. /ˈlɪtʃˌɡeɪt/ archaic.
The roofed gateway to a churchyard under which the corpse is set down, to await the clergyman's arrival.
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lych-gate1482
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the world > life > death > obsequies > [noun] > a funeral > funeral procession > lich-gate
lych-gate1482
1482–3 in H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum (1896) 30 Et sol'. Will'o Sariant Carpent' pro emend' le lycheyate, iiijd.
1681 E. Ashmole in T. Davies Lives E. Ashmole & W. Lilley (1774) 162 His coarse was..received by the minister (in his surplice) at the Litch-Gates.
1846 Guide Archit. Antiq. Oxford 375 A handsome lich~gate of carved oak has been erected at the entrance of the Church-yard.
1864 Ld. Tennyson Aylmer's Field in Enoch Arden, etc. 93 Yet to the lychgate, where his chariot stood, [He] Strode from the porch.
1875 J. Grant One of Six Hundred xviii. 138 The ivy-clad lyke-gate of the village church.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1482