COFFIN

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does coffin mean? 

• COFFIN (noun)
  The noun COFFIN has 1 sense:

1. box in which a corpse is buried or cremated

  Familiarity information: COFFIN used as a noun is very rare.

• COFFIN (verb)
  The verb COFFIN has 1 sense:

1. place into a coffin

  Familiarity information: COFFIN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COFFIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Box in which a corpse is buried or cremated

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

casket; coffin

Hypernyms ("coffin" is a kind of...):

box (a (usually rectangular) container; may have a lid)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coffin"):

bier (a coffin along with its stand)

sarcophagus (a stone coffin (usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions))

Derivation:

coffin (place into a coffin)

• COFFIN (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Place into a coffin

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

her body was coffined

Hypernyms (to "coffin" is one way to...):

lay; place; pose; position; put; set (put into a certain place or abstract location)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

coffin (box in which a corpse is buried or cremated)

 Context examples 

When it grew late, six tall men came in and brought a coffin.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was an historical subject, painted at my father’s desire, and represented Caroline Beaufort in an agony of despair, kneeling by the coffin of her dead father.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He remembered the hard palms of his mother as she lay in her coffin.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He took his screwdriver and again took off the lid of the coffin.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Quick, Watson, quick! Here is a screw-driver!” he shouted as the coffin was replaced upon the table.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Why, nephew, said he, you look as if you were walking behind my coffin.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The coffin, at the side of the fire, served for seat and table.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Jo peeped into his half-open eye, felt his little heart, and finding him stiff and cold, shook her head, and offered her domino box for a coffin.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I mused on the funeral day, the coffin, the hearse, the black train of tenants and servants—few was the number of relatives—the gaping vault, the silent church, the solemn service.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I can't say how I knew it was my dear, dear mother's coffin that they went to look at.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)