/ ˈmɔːtʃəri; NAmE ˈmɔːrtʃueri/ noun ( pl. -ies )
1.
a room or building, for example part of a hospital, in which dead bodies are kept before they are buried or cremated (= burned)
2.
( NAmE ) = funeral parlour
—compare morgue
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WORD ORIGIN
late 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.