Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Coffin?

\Cof"fin\ (?; 115), n. [OE., a basket, receptacle, OF. cofin, fr. L. cophinus. See {Coffer}, n.] 1. The case in which a dead human body is inclosed for burial. They embalmed him [Joseph], and he was put in a coffin. --Gen. 1. 26. 2. A basket. [Obs.] --Wyclif (matt. xiv. 20). 3. A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie. Of the paste a coffin I will rear. --Shak. 4. A conical paper bag, used by grocers. [Obs.] --Nares. 5. (Far.) The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone. {Coffin bone}, the foot bone of the horse and allied animals, inclosed within the hoof, and corresponding to the third phalanx of the middle finger, or toe, of most mammals. {Coffin joint}, the joint next above the coffin bone.
\Cof"fin\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Coffined}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Coffining}.] To inclose in, or as in, a coffin. Would'st thou have laughed, had I come coffined home? --Shak. Devotion is not coffined in a cell. --John Hall (1646).