bier
Americannoun
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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.
noun
Etymology
Origin of bier
before 900; Middle English bere, Old English bēr, bǣr ( e ); cognate with Old High German bāra ( German Bahre ), Dutch, Danish baar, Swedish bår; spelling influenced by French bière; akin to bear 1, barrow 1
Explanation
A bier is a structure used to hold a coffin during a funeral. When a popular public figure dies, crowds of mourners may line up in order to walk past the bier and pay their respects. You might confuse this word with beer, its homonym — but you can't drink a bier. The word comes from the Old English bær, "handbarrow or litter," and its root meaning, "to carry." Some biers are stationary frames, while others can be lifted and carried by pallbearers as they transport a coffin. It's a sad occasion that requires a bier.
Vocabulary lists containing bier
Romeo and Juliet
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"In India, it's said that the bride enters the husband's home carried on a palanquin and that she leaves only after her death, carried out on a funeral bier," Rao told the BBC.
From BBC • Mar. 7, 2026
While you meditate you brood on the impermanence of all things, including yourself, and envision yourself as a corpse, lying out on a bier, all life gone.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
The solemn processions, with the flower-adorned biers followed by the clergy and the faithful, are often spectacular, especially in places where bier processions from each parish converge into a central square.
From Seattle Times • May 4, 2024
As of Tuesday night, about 135,000 people had filed past the former pope, who has been lying in state without any papal regalia on a catafalque, a raised bier, before the basilica's main altar.
From Reuters • Jan. 4, 2023
She moved away from him and went right up to the bier.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
