a room or building, for example part of a hospital, in which dead bodies are kept before they are buried or cremated (= burned) 太平間；停屍房 They put the body in the hospital mortuary. 他們把屍體放在醫院太平間。 He works at the public mortuary. 他在公共太平間工作。
- (North American English) (British English funeral parlour, US English also funeral parlor, funeral home North American English, British English)
a place where dead people are prepared for being buried or cremated (= burned) and where visitors can see the body 殡儀館 compare morgue
Word Originlate Middle English (denoting a gift claimed by a parish priest from a deceased person's estate): from Latin mortuarius, from mortuus ‘dead’. The current noun sense dates from the mid 19th cent.