tombstone

tomb +‎ stone

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tombstone (plural tombstones)

1. A headstone marking a person's grave.

   Synonyms: headstone, gravestone

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob's Room:

     True, there's no harm in crying for one's husband, and the tombstone, though plain, was a solid piece of work, and on summer's days when the widow brought her boys to stand there one felt kindly towards her.

2. (mathematics) The symbol "∎" marking the end of a proof.

   Synonym: halmos

3. (computing, Microsoft Windows) A marker that takes the place of deleted data, allowing for replication of the deletion across servers etc.

• through-stone

tombstone (third-person singular simple present tombstones, present participle tombstoning, simple past and past participle tombstoned)

1. (Britain, intransitive) To take part in tombstoning: to jump into the sea, etc. from a cliff or other high point so as to enter the water vertically straight.
2. (surfing) For a surfboard to stand upright half-submerged in the water (like a tombstone, above) because the surfer is underwater with his or her legrope pulled tight. Often this indicates a surfer in difficulty, either held down by the power of a wave or unconscious and unable to get to the surface.
   • 2005, Bruce Jenkins, Surfer magazine, (referring to Kelly Slater) :

     Before the contest even started, Slater went down hard in a warmup session. He took a two-wave hold-down in the semifinals, his board tombstoning eerily for all to see, […]

3. (transitive, computing, Microsoft Windows) To replace (an object or data) with a tombstone marker.

• tombstone on Wikipedia.Wikipedia