bier
[beer]
- a frame or stand on which a corpse or the coffin containing it is laid before burial.
- such a stand together with the corpse or coffin.
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Origin of bier
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bier
Contemporary Examples
So they laid her on a bier, and all seven of them sat down beside it and wept and wept for three whole days.
Historical Examples
Then, one at the head and the other at the feet, they brought the body out, and laid it on the bier.
Heather and SnowGeorge MacDonald
And it seemed as if a devil whispered to him: 'A solitary couch is itself a bier.
Father SergiusLeo Tolstoy
One very heavy Indian, who was sick, was carried upon a bier.
King PhilipJohn S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
Half a league from the city the bier was met by all the dignitaries of the place.
Tom Brandon and five other young men were to carry the bier.
Daughters of the Revolution and Their TimesCharles Carleton Coffin
bier
- a platform or stand on which a corpse or a coffin containing a corpse rests before burial
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Word Origin
Old English bǣr; related to beran to bear 1, Old High German bāra bier, Sanskrit bhārá a burden
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 bier
n.
Old English bær (West Saxon), ber (Anglian) "handbarrow, litter, bed," from West Germanic *bero (cf. Old Saxon, Old High German bara, Old Frisian bere, Middle Dutch bare, Dutch baar, German Bahre "bier"), from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry; to bear children," and thus related to the Old English verb beran "to bear" (see bear (v.)), making a bier etymologically anything used for carrying, only later limited to funerary sense. Since c.1600, spelling influenced by French bière, from Old French biere, from Frankish *bera, from the same Germanic root.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper