coffin
UK /ˈkɒfɪn/ · US /ˈkɔfɪn/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms coffins coffining coffined cophin coffyn coffan coffen goffin goffan goffen Coffing
- noun A closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial.
- noun (cartomancy) The eighth Lenormand card.
- noun (archaic) A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
- noun (obsolete) A conical paper bag, used by grocers.
- noun The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.
- noun A storage container for nuclear waste.
- noun A combination fence obstacle where the horse jumps a set of rails, strides downhill to a ditch, and then goes back uphill to another jump.
- verb (transitive) To place in a coffin.
- noun (mining, obsolete) An exploratory trench used when first digging a mine.
- noun (by extension) A deep ditch.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
casket pine box wooden coat wooden kimono wooden overcoat wooden surtout encoffin
Etymology
From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer. Displaced native Old English þrūh.
Borrowed from Cornish koghyn (“exploratory trench”), with spelling likely influenced by etymology 1.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The case in which a dead human body is inclosed for burial.
- noun A basket. [Obs.] Wyclif (matt. xiv. 20).
- verb To inclose in, or as in, a coffin.
Etymology [OE., a basket, receptacle, OF. cofin, fr. L. cophinus. See Coffer, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “coffin”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details