casket
[kas-kit, kah-skit]
- a coffin.
- a small chest or box, as for jewels.
- to put or enclose in a casket.
Origin of casket
1425–75; late Middle English < ?
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for casket
Contemporary Examples
Sitting in chairs staring at the casket are friends, family, and… Kevin Spacey?
Kevin Spacey Stars as a Frank Underwood-like Warmonger in ‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’Alec Kubas-Meyer
November 8, 2014
It was better that he did not look at the casket and grave of John Fitzgerald Kennedy too often.
When she came up to the grave at the cemetery, the casket already was in place.
A 12-year-old boy who escaped the shooting with his mother introduced himself to Sullivan at the casket viewing.
St. Joseph's Abbey opened a casket business in 2007, selling high-end handcrafted cypress caskets to help finance its operations.
Historical Examples
He would prize the jewel, and overlook the inferiority of the casket.
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. IFrancis Augustus Cox
But Jarrett caught hold of my arm and took possession of the casket, which he opened.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
You will remit to her my casket, in which all my private papers are kept.
The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, CompleteMadame La Marquise De Montespan
In the casket of the Dauphin there were several papers he had asked me for.
The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, CompleteDuc de Saint-Simon
Rohan alighted, and went upstairs with a casket under his arm.
The Historical Nights' EntertainmentRafael Sabatini
casket
- a small box or chest for valuables, esp jewels
- mainly US another name for coffin (def. 1)
Word Origin
C15: probably from Old French cassette little box; see case ²
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for casket
n.
mid-15c., "small box for jewels, etc.," possibly a diminutive of English cask, or from a corruption of Middle French casset (see cassette). Meaning "coffin" is American English, probably euphemistic, attested by 1832.
Caskets! a vile modern phrase, which compels a person ... to shrink ... from the idea of being buried at all. [Hawthorne, "Our Old Home," 1863]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper