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• coffin
  coffin

  noun

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

  noun

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

coffin

¹ American  

[kaw-fin, kof-in] / ˈkɔ fɪn, ˈkɒf ɪn /

noun

• coffins
  plural

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

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

3. Printing.

   1. the bed of a platen press.

   2. the wooden frame around the bed of an early wooden press.

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verb (used with object)

1. to put or enclose in or as in a coffin.

Coffin ² American  

[kaw-fin, kof-in] / ˈkɔ fɪn, ˈkɒf ɪn /

noun

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

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

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coffin British  

/ ˈkɒfɪn /

noun

1. a box in which a corpse is buried or cremated

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

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verb

1. (tr) to place in or as in a coffin

2. engineering another name for flask

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• uncoffin
  verb (used with object)
• coffinless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• coffins
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of coffin

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

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Explanation

The long wooden box in which a dead body is kept for burial or cremation is called a coffin. At a graveside funeral, you'll see the coffin lowered into a grave. Most coffins are made of wood, though they can also be steel, fiberglass, or bamboo. A coffin is generally thought of as the same thing as a casket, although some people distinguish between a six-sided coffin and a four-sided casket. The earliest meaning of coffin, from the 14th century, was "box for valuables," from the Latin cophinus, "basket or hamper," and the Greek root kophinos, "a basket."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

coffin Coffin coffins

Lady Shep-En-Hor has never been removed from the coffin, but has been X-rayed and CT scanned in the last 50 years.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

No one sleeps in a coffin and everyone seems to go out during the day for work or school.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

Carried aloft by druids in a closed coffin, the show's host arrived in a church, to greet 21 anxious-looking celebrities.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Spencer said that during a separate call he implored Charles not to force William and Harry to walk behind their mother’s coffin during a public funeral procession.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

Behind us, Don Berto’s sons carried the coffin on their shoulders and didn’t set it down all the way there.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

The Minions also have trouble adapting, but Coffin demonstrates that by inserting them into the films of the 1940s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

During this adventure, director Pierre Coffin, who also voices the little guys, also references “King Kong,” “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

“People would tell me, ‘Kids are not going to understand,’” Coffin said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

Coffin, the co-creator and voice of the Minions, was born in France to Franco-Indonesian intellectuals who only turned on the TV for old movies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

One piece of the mudslinging was the Coffin Handbill, a famous campaign poster published by Adams supporters that showed rows of coffins and listed Jackson’s “bloody deeds”—his duels, the deaths of militiamen under his command.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

Thousands of protesters wore red and carried symbolic coffins during a demonstration in Mexico City on Saturday, demanding answers about the 43 trainee teachers who went missing 12 years ago.

From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026

Inside, I do a double-take: the men working inside are hammering together wooden coffins.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

The earliest burials were generally spaced apart from one another, and the bodies were placed inside coffins.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

Tributes on Chinese social media revived Zhu’s most quotable lines, including his vow that he had prepared “100 coffins, 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

We sensed them piled around us, like coffins.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck

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Related Words

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