casket
Americannoun
-
a coffin.
-
a small chest or box, as for jewels.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
a small box or chest for valuables, esp jewels
-
another name for coffin
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of casket
1425–75; late Middle English < ?
Explanation
A casket is a coffin, or a box in which the body of a dead person is buried. Some funeral traditions include a chance for mourners to see the deceased in the casket before burial. Most caskets are made of wood — some plain, and others more ornamental. Many caskets are buried in cemeteries, although others are cremated, or burned to ash, depending on religious and personal preferences. You can also use the word casket to mean "small box," particularly a box for jewelry or other precious items, and this is the word's earliest meaning, from the Old French cassette, a diminutive form of case.
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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.
Members of the Republican Guard carried the casket draped in a French flag into the courtyard to the beat of a drum before Macron read a eulogy, saying Jospin fought for justice and freedom.
From Barron's • Mar. 26, 2026
After nine days in the capital, they returned to Savannah on a large Airbus jet carrying Sam’s casket, accompanied by more than a dozen PSA pilots.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 14, 2026
He was three years old when a photographer captured him saluting his father’s casket, and for many years, that was how most of America pictured him.
From Salon • Feb. 12, 2026
It had been buried in Ampthill Park inside a terracotta casket and sealed with wax to evade metal detectors.
From BBC • Nov. 28, 2025
Still, Mollie and her family placed enough food in the casket for Anna’s three-day journey to what the Osage refer to as the Happy Hunting Ground.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
