caisson

[key-suhn, -son]

noun

1. a structure used in underwater work, consisting of an airtight chamber, open at the bottom and containing air under sufficient pressure to exclude the water.

2. a boatlike structure used as a gate for a dock or the like.

3. Nautical.

   1. Also called camel, pontoon. a float for raising a sunken vessel, sunk beside the vessel, made fast to it, and then pumped out to make it buoyant.

   2. a watertight structure built against a damaged area of a hull to render the hull watertight; cofferdam.

4. a two-wheeled wagon, used for carrying artillery ammunition.

5. an ammunition chest.

6. a wooden chest containing bombs or explosives, used formerly as a mine.

7. Architecture.,  coffer.

caisson

/ ˈkeɪsən, kəˈsuːn /

noun

1. a watertight chamber open at the bottom and containing air under pressure, used to carry out construction work under water

2. a similar unpressurized chamber

3. a watertight float filled with air, used to raise sunken ships See also camel

4. a watertight structure placed across the entrance of a basin, dry dock, etc, to exclude water from it

5. 1. a box containing explosives, formerly used as a mine

   2. an ammunition chest

   3. a two-wheeled vehicle containing an ammunition chest

6. another name for coffer

Other Word Forms

• caissoned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of caisson¹

1695–1705; < French, Middle French < Old Provençal, equivalent to caissa box ( case ² ) + -on augmentative suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of caisson¹

C18: from French, assimilated to caisse _case ²

Example Sentences

Eyer’s body in a flag-draped coffin was brought from police headquarters on a horse-drawn caisson three blocks to the church where the late evangelist Billy Graham held his first crusade.

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The service is also getting lighter-weight caissons and conducting more extensive training for the soldiers to ride and take care of the horses.

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The Army is also working on obtaining a lighter caisson to put less strain on the horses and developing new saddles and other tack to better prevent horse injuries, Pepin said.

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Drawn by four horses, his flag-draped casket arrived atop a black caisson in the small city of Glenwood, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

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They will lie in state for two days before horse-drawn caissons carry them back to their resting places.

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