coffin

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

English [edit]

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

coffins

From Middle English cofin, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kophinos, “a basket”).

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /ˈkɒfɪn/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)

Noun [edit]

coffin (plural coffins)

  1. An oblong closed box in which a dead person is buried.
  2. (obsolete) A basket.
  3. A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
    Of the paste a coffin I will rear. (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
  4. (obsolete) A conical paper bag, used by grocers.
  5. The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Usage notes [edit]

The type of coffin with upholstery and a half-open lid (mostly in the United States) is called a casket.

Synonyms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

Terms derived from coffin (noun)

Translations [edit]

box for the dead

Verb [edit]

coffin (third-person singular simple present coffins, present participle coffining, simple past and past participle coffined)

  1. (transitive) To place in a coffin.
    • 2007, Barbara Everett, "Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances," London Review of Books, 29:6, p. 21:
      The chest in which she is coffined washes ashore and is brought to the Lord Cerimon.

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

to place in a coffin
Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=coffin&oldid=20591285"