coffin

[kaw-fin, kof-in]

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noun

the box or case in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial; casket.

the part of a horse's foot containing the coffin bone.

Printing.

the bed of a platen press.
the wooden frame around the bed of an early wooden press.

verb (used with object)

to put or enclose in or as in a coffin.

Origin of coffin

1300–50; Middle English cofin < Old North French < Latin cophinus < Greek kóphinos a kind of basket

Related formscof·fin·less, adjectiveun·cof·fin, verb (used with object)

Coffin

[kaw-fin, kof-in]

noun

Levi,1798–1877, U.S. abolitionist leader.

Robert P(eter) Tristram,1892–1955, U.S. poet, essayist, and biographer.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for coffin

crate, sarcophagus, casket, pall, catafalque

Examples from the Web for coffin

Contemporary Examples of coffin

The family was taking some private moments for a closing of the coffin in keeping with Chinese ritual.
Funeral Protest Is Too Much for NYPD Union Boss
Michael Daly
January 5, 2015
Well, the dwarfs took pity on him and gave him the coffin, and the prince had it carried to his castle.
In New Brothers Grimm 'Snow White', The Prince Doesn't Save Her
The Brothers Grimm
November 30, 2014
So Little Snow White lay in the coffin for a long, long time but did not rot.
In New Brothers Grimm 'Snow White', The Prince Doesn't Save Her
The Brothers Grimm
November 30, 2014
So he asked the dwarfs to sell him the coffin with the dead Little Snow White inside.
In New Brothers Grimm 'Snow White', The Prince Doesn't Save Her
The Brothers Grimm
November 30, 2014
Then they wrote her name on the coffin in gold letters and added the family name.
In New Brothers Grimm 'Snow White', The Prince Doesn't Save Her
The Brothers Grimm
November 30, 2014

Historical Examples of coffin

So he lay down in the coffin but no sooner was he inside when bang!
Ancient Man
Hendrik Willem van Loon
Then he called for his servants and ordered them to throw the coffin into the Nile.
Ancient Man
Hendrik Willem van Loon
Maybe yourself and Eamon would make a coffin when the sun rises.
Riders to the Sea
J. M. Synge
They left it on her breast, in the coffin, and it went with that guilty woman to the tomb.
Other Tales and Sketches
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Else why should the bearers stagger, as they tremulously uphold the coffin?
Main Street
Nathaniel Hawthorne

British Dictionary definitions for coffin

coffin

noun

a box in which a corpse is buried or cremated

the part of a horse's foot that contains the coffin bone

verb

(tr) to place in or as in a coffin

engineering another name for flask (def. 6)

Word Origin for coffin

C14: from Old French cofin, from Latin cophinus basket; see coffer

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for coffin

early 14c., "chest or box for valuables," from Old French cofin "sarcophagus," earlier "basket, coffer" (12c., Modern French coffin), from Latin cophinus "basket, hamper" (source of Italian cafano, Spanish cuebano "basket"), from Greek kophinos "a basket," of uncertain origin.

Funeral sense in English is 1520s; before that it was the literal Latin one and had also a meaning of "pie crust" (late 14c.). Meaning "vehicle regarded as unsafe" is from 1830s. Coffin nail "cigarette" is slang from 1880; nail in (one's) coffin "thing that contributes to one's death" is from 1792.