Alone, and yet alive!  Oh, sepulchre!
     My soul is still my body's prisoner!
     Remote the peace that Death alone can give--
     My doom, to wait! my punishment, to live!
     
               Hearts do not break!
               They sting and ache
               For old love's sake,
                    But do not die,
               Though with each breath
               They long for death
               As witnesseth
                    The living I!
                         Oh, living I!
                         Come, tell me why,
                         When hope is gone,
                         Dost thou stay on?
                         Why linger here,
                         Where all is drear?
                         Oh, living I!
                         Come, tell me why,
                         When hope is gone,
                         Dost thou stay on?
                    May not a cheated maiden die?
                    May not a cheated maiden die?

--Mikado, Act Two (right after "the Flowers that Bloom in the Spring [tra-la]"
sung by KATISHA, upon learning that her beloved Nanki-Poo has been "executed".

Gilbert seems to have meant the first part of the first definition: a place of entombment. (And buried alive, at that.) Nothing sacred or religious about it.