a grotto or subterraneous place for the burial of the dead.

The term is particularly used in Italy, for a vast assemblage of subterraneous sepulchres, three leagues from Rome, in the via Appia, supposed to be the sepulchres of the ancients: Others imagine these catacombs to be the cells wherein the primitive Christians hid themselves. Each catacomb is three feet broad, and eight or ten high, running in form of an alley or gallery, and communicating with one another.