Crypt \Crypt\ (kr[i^]pt), n. [L. crypta vault, crypt, Gr. kry`pth, fr. kry`ptein to hide. See Grot, Grotto.]

1. A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory.

Priesthood works out its task age after age, . . . treasuring in convents and crypts the few fossils of antique learning. --Motley.

My knees are bowed in crypt and shrine. --Tennyson.

2. (Anat.) A simple gland, glandular cavity, or tube; a follicle; as, the crypts of Lieberk["u]hn, the simple tubular glands of the small intestines.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)