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Glite Dictionary
empty tomb

empty tomb

7.7
A monument honoring a person whose body is elsewhere or cannot be found
  • noun
translation icon : tumba vacía
  • Professor Craig argues that the historical evidence for the empty tomb is reliable according to the criteria of historical investigation.
  • explanations for the empty tomb
  • Jesus' empty tomb

Examples

  • Mary's just come to the empty tomb.

    The Work and the Glory (2004)

  • I saw the empty tomb.

    Apostle Peter and the Last Supper (2013)

  • The constant would be the fact that the empty tomb was found by women disciples.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Some women followers of Jesus subsequently arrived and discovered the empty tomb.

  • After the disciples had experienced visions of Jesus alive, the women's story developed into the account of their discovery of Jesus' empty tomb.

Synonyms

cenotaph
vsempty tomb
2 9.9

A monument that honours people whose bodies are not there

is limited to honoring a single person rather than groups

Surface Forms

empty tomb singular
empty tombs plural

Morphology

empty + tomb

The meaning is directly compositional: 'empty' (having no contents) + 'tomb' (burial chamber) yields a tomb lacking remains, which a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer. The more specific funerary nuance (e.g. a cenotaph or monument for remains elsewhere) is a natural extension of that literal reading and is not idiomatic, so the expression is transparent.

Etymology

Empty tomb is a monument whose tomb is really empty because the person's body is missing or buried somewhere else. People put it up 'to remember' that person, so the phrase means a memorial for someone whose remains are not present.