Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Urn?

\Urn\, n. [OE. urne, L. urna; perhaps fr. urere to burn, and sop called as being made of burnt clay (cf. {East}): cf. F. urne.] 1. A vessel of various forms, usually a vase furnished with a foot or pedestal, employed for different purposes, as for holding liquids, for ornamental uses, for preserving the ashes of the dead after cremation, and anciently for holding lots to be drawn. A rustic, digging in the ground by Padua, found an urn, or earthen pot, in which there was another urn. --Bp. Wilkins. His scattered limbs with my dead body burn, And once more join us in the pious urn. --Dryden. 2. Fig.: Any place of burial; the grave. Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, Tombless, with no remembrance over them. --Shak. 3. (Rom. Antiq.) A measure of capacity for liquids, containing about three gallons and a haft, wine measure. It was haft the amphora, and four times the congius. 4. (Bot.) A hollow body shaped like an urn, in which the spores of mosses are contained; a spore case; a theca. 5. A tea urn. See under {Tea}. {Urn mosses} (Bot.), the order of true mosses; -- so called because the capsules of many kinds are urn-shaped.
\Urn\, v. t. To inclose in, or as in, an urn; to inurn. When horror universal shall descend, And heaven's dark concave urn all human race. --Young.