bier

American  

[beer] / bɪər /

noun

1. a frame or stand on which a corpse or the coffin containing it is laid before burial.

2. such a stand together with the corpse or coffin.

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bier British  

/ bɪə /

noun

1. a platform or stand on which a corpse or a coffin containing a corpse rests before burial

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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

Example Sentences

"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

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

Faithful and curious, the public strode briskly up the center aisle to pass by the bier with its cloth draping after waiting in a line that by midmorning snaked around St. Peter’s Square.

From Washington Times • Jan. 2, 2023

There the bier was placed on a specially prepared altar in the middle of the floor.

From "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder