▪ I. urn, n.
(ɜːn)
Also 5 vrn (6 Sc. wrn), 4–7 vrne, 5 uryn, 7 urne.
[ad. L. urna (whence It., Sp., Pg. urna, F. urne), f. ūrĕre to burn.]
1. An earthenware or metal vessel or vase of a rounded or ovaloid form and with a circular base, used by various peoples esp. in former times (notably by the Romans and Greeks) to preserve the ashes of the dead. Hence vaguely used (esp. poet.) for ‘a tomb or sepulchre, the grave’.
In frequent use from c 1640.
| 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 311 The poudre..prey I þe þow take and it conserue In a vessel, þat men clepeþ an vrne, Of gold. 14.. Lydg. Bk. Life of our Lady (Caxton) i vi b, The pyece..Was by an aungel in an vrne of golde To charlis brought. 1420–2 ― Thebes iii. 4575 Some of hem with vrnes made of gold, whan the asshes fully weren made cold, Tenclosyn hem. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. vi. 24 When she is dead, Her Ashes, in an Vrne..Transported, shall be at high Festiuals. 1595 ― Hen. V, i. ii. 228 Lay these bones in an vnworthy Vrne, Tomblesse, with no remembrance ouer them. 1607 Dekker Hist. Sir T. Wyatt A 3, Alasse, how small an Vrne containes a King! 1658 Sir T. Browne (title), Hydriotaphia, Urne-Buriall, or, a Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes lately found in Norfolk. 1685 Dryden Thren. August. xiii, So, rising from his Fathers Urn, So Glorious did our Charles return. 1702 Echard Eccl. Hist. iii. iv. 376 Ordering his Urn to be brought,..[Severus] said ‘Little Urn, thou shalt now contain what the whole World could not before’. 1750 Gray Elegy xi, Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? 1824 Byron Juan xvi. xviii, As you turn Backward and forward.., voices from the urn Appear to wake. 1838 [J. Murray] Econ. Vegetation iii. 76 The capsule of the poppy..seems to have been adopted as the pattern of the cinerary urn. 1875 W. Eassie Cremation 16 In both ancient Greece and Rome the dwelling-house was made the repository of the funeral urns. Ibid. 123 Urns of gold and silver were not uncommon in ancient times, and are even yet used in Siam. |
2. a. A vessel for holding voting-tablets, lots, or balls, in casting lots, voting, etc. Chiefly
Roman Antiq.| 1513 Douglas æneid vi. i. 46 The deidlie vrne.., Out of the quhilk the lottis warrin draw. Ibid. vii. 18 The fatale wrn and ballance. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii, Come, We of the bench Let's rise to the vrne, and condemne 'hem. 1658 J. Harrington Oceana 72 The number of the Ballottants at either Urn. 1703 Prior Ode Memory G. Villiers 92 When th' Infernal Judges dismal Pow'r From the dark Urn shall throw Thy destin'd Hour. 1720 Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. II. xii. 235 To draw out of the Urn none but the Names of such Tribes. 1781 J. Moore View Soc. Italy I. xi. 121 Each elector..throws a little billet into an urn... On this billet is inscribed the person's name. 1825 Fosbroke Encycl. Antiq. 201 Urns for the Ballot... These urns were of two kinds. 1838 De Morgan Ess. Probab. 54 A white ball has been drawn, and from one or other of the two following urns. 1884 tr. Lotze's Logic 368 Suppose we put in an urn..3 white balls, in a second urn..4 white balls. |
† b. in the urn, not yet discovered; unknown.
| 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. i. 2 That great Antiquity America lay buried for a thousand years, and a large part of the earth is still in the Urne unto us. |
c. A ballot-box.
| 1888 Times (weekly ed.) 21 Dec. 6/1 Nearly 75 per cent. of the..voters appeared at the urns. 1892 Nation (N.Y.) 8 Dec. 428/1 Since the extension of the suffrage [in Italy], the attendance at the urns has considerably fallen off. |
3. a. A hollow (
esp. earthenware) vessel or pot of an oviform or rounded shape, and having a circular base; used for various purposes. Also in
fig. context.
| a 1639 Carew Poems (1651) 8 Vesta is not displeas'd if her chast urn Doe with repayred fuell ever burn. 1648 Wilkins Math. Magick ii. x. 234 As a rustick was digging the ground..he found an Urne..in which there was another urne, and in this lesser, a lamp clearly burning. 1656 Cowley Mistr., Dialogue iv, Like Tapers shut in ancient Urns. 1754 Gray Progr. Poetry 109 Bright-eyed Fancy..Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts, that breathe. 1827 Pollok Course T. viii. 633 He put A penny in the urn of poverty. 1851 Neale Med. Hymns 102 Here the urn of manna standeth. |
| transf. 1857 Heavysege Saul (1869) 234 [A] song..Falling as faintly and as dewlike down Into the urn of my night-opened ear. |
| fig. a 1854 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets xiv. (1857) II. 171 The steady orb of a planet, its golden urn filled at the fountain of the sun. 1857 Emerson Ode sung in Town Hall 2, O tenderly the haughty day Fills his blue urn with fire. 1860 C. Sangster Hesperus 26 Morn on the mountains lights his urn of fire. |
b. A sculptured ornament resembling or shaped like a vase, water-pot, or cinerary urn.
| 1653 in Verney Mem. (1907) I. 530 Her statue..set uppon an Urne or Pedestall. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Ep. Ded., Theatrical Vessels, and great Hippodrome Urns in Rome. 1728 Chambers Cycl., Urn,..a kind of Vase,..used..as Ornaments over Chimney-pieces, a-top of Buildings, Funeral Monuments, &c. 1767 Jago Edge-hill i. 472 Nor the lone Hermit's Cell, or mournful Urn Build on the sprightly Lawn. 1842 Tennyson Day-Dream 29 Soft lustre bathes the range of urns On every slanting terrace-lawn. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xi, The cedar on the lawn,..and the granite urns on the garden wall. 1885 J. B. Fleming Let. to Dr. W. G. Blackie 20 March (MS.), The Draped Urn of Monumental Sculpture. Ibid., Draped or Monumental Urns. |
4. a. An oviform pitcher or vessel for holding water, etc.; a water-pitcher, water-pot.
| 1613 R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (ed. 3), Vrne, a pot or pitcher. 1649 Ogilby æneis vii. (1684) 286 There Argus watch'd, lest to her shape she [sc. Io] turn, By Inachus pouring from a graven Urn. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 205/2 Temperance hath a Cup in the one hand, and a Bottle Urn in the other, pouring Wine thereout. 1725 Pope Odyssey ii. 398 But by thy care twelve urns of wine be fill'd. 1747 Spence Polymetis 172 Aquarius..holds the cup or little urn in his hand, inclined downwards. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. I. 252 Some very ancient medals, in which rivers were represented by figures leaning on an urn. 1821 Shelley Adonais xi, One from a lucid urn of starry dew Washed his light limbs. 1846 Keble Lyra Innoc. (ed. 3) 280 The wedding guests are met, The urns are duly set. 1867 Morris Jason iv. 460 To turn the mill, and carry forth the urn Unto the stream. |
| fig. and transf. 1720 Pope Iliad xxiv. 663 Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood;..From thence the cup of mortal man he fills, Blessings to these, to those distributes ills. 1781 Cowper Charity 436 When one, that holds communion with the skies, Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise. 1838 Lytton Alice i. iii, Her simplicity of thought was daily filled, from the urns of invisible spirits. a 1866 B. Taylor Summer Camp 13 Shadelike dew Poured from the urns of twilight. |
b. The source of a stream, river, etc.; a spring or fountain. Also, the course of a stream.
From the practice of representing river gods or nymphs in sculpture or painting as holding, leaning upon, or pouring water from, an urn.
| [1692 Prior Ode Imit. Hor. x, Where-e'er old Rhine his fruitful Water turns, Or fills his Vassals Tributary Urns.] 1728 Young Love Fame vii. 207 From the rich store one fruitful urn supplies, Whole kingdoms smile, a thousand harvests rise. 1767 Jago Edge-hill i. 209 From many a subterraneous Reservoir,..the rocky Urns..their liquid Stores discharge. 1781 Cowper Retirem. 76 Ten thousand rivers poured..From urns that never fail. 1810 T. L. Peacock Genius of Thames 10 The streams roll on, nor e'er return To fill again their parent urn. 1824 Longfellow Woods in Winter iv, From their frozen urns, mute springs Pour out the river's gradual tide. 1830 Tennyson Ode to Memory 61 The brook..Drawing into his narrow earthen urn..The filter'd tribute of the rough woodland. |
c. A bottle or vase for holding tears (
freq. with
lachrymal). Also
transf.| 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v., Another kind of Urns were those which they called lachrymales, or the tear-Urns. These were contrived to receive the tears of the friends of the deceased. 1771 E. Griffith History of Lady Barton III. 46, I opened the little trunk,..which may properly be called the lachrymal urn of the unfortunate Maria. 1837 Popular Encycl. VI. 764 Little vessels have occasionally been found in ancient tombs, denominated lachrymal urns. |
d. Astr. (With capital initial.) The constellation of Aquarius.
| 1633 P. Fletcher Pisc. Ecl., etc. To W. R. iv, The sunne, which yet in fishes hasks, Or wat'ry urn, impounds his fainting head. 1697 Creech Manilius ii. 65 The Fish oppose the Maid, the watry Urn With adverse Fires sees raging Leo burn. 1770 Akenside Odes i. xvi. 1 With sordid floods the wintry Urn Hath stained fair Richmond's level green. |
5. Short for
tea-urn,
tea n. 9 c.
| 1781 W. Hayley Tri. Temper iv. 120 No smoke arises from the silver urn, And the blank tea-board..Only supplied the paper of the day. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 38 The bubbling and loud-hissing urn. 1834 Dickens Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho. ii, James brought up the urn, and received an unlimited order for dry toast and bacon. 1880 M. E. Braddon Just as I am xxi, Miss Blake presided over the urn and teapots. |
6. a. Bot. The spore-case or capsule of urn-mosses.
| 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 9/2 The urn (sporangium, or theca) in which the spores, or seed-like bodies, are generated. 1858 Carpenter Veg. Phys. §736 The fructification of Mosses..consists of a capsule or urn, borne at the top of a long foot⁓stalk, which grows out from the centre of a cluster of leaves. 1890 Nature 20 Feb. 379 The mosses unfold the delicate lacework of their dainty urns. |
b. Biol. An urn-shaped process or part.
| 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. xi. 655 An infusoriform, bilaterally symmetrical embryo, which consists of an urn, a ciliated body, and two refractive bodies. 1883 H. Drummond Nat. Law in Spir. W. 370 No power on earth can make these little urns of the Polycystinæ except Life. |
7. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 1)
urn-burial,
urn-graveyard,
urn-niche; (sense 5)
urn-room,
urn-stand; (sense 2 c)
urn-system;
urn-burying,
urn-cornered,
urn-like,
urn-maker,
urn-shaped, etc.;
urn animalcule,
-flower,
-moss (see
quots.);
urnfield, a cemetery of individual cremation graves with remains in pottery urns,
esp. as used by North European peoples from
c 1200 b.c. onwards; also
attrib.,
esp. designating peoples using this rite or their cultures.
| 1847 T. R. Jones in Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. i. 11 The Trichodinæ, or *Urn animalcules,..are provided with a fasciculus or circlet of cilia situated in front of their bodies, which are disc-shaped, bowl-shaped, or conical. 1658 *Urn-burial [see sense 1]. a 1796 in Gentl. Mag. LXVI. i. 41/1 The latter [sc. Danish] people used urn-burial, and burnt their dead. 1836 Archaeol. XXVI. 370 Evidence..that urn burial had been disused at length by the Romans. |
| a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts (1683) 154 They might be erected..before the term of *Urn-burying or custom of burning the dead expired. |
| 1895 K. Grahame Golden Age 45 Terrace after terrace of shaven sward, stone-edged, *urn-cornered. |
| 1889 Soc. Antiquaries, Notice of Meeting 5 Dec., Celtic Pottery from an ancient British *urn-field. 1928 V. G. Childe in Antiquity II. 37 On the continent as in Britain the later phases of the Bronze Age are marked by the spread of large cremation cemeteries generally termed urnfields. One of the several groups of urnfield cultures in Central Europe occupies such a pre-eminent position that it may even claim to be the parent of all the rest. It is known as the Lausitz or Lusatian culture. 1958 T. G. E. Powell Celts 38 The dead were generally cremated, and the broken bones placed in an urn for burial in a flat cemetery. Many of these cemeteries..have been called urnfields so that the descriptive labels ‘Urnfield Period’ and ‘Urnfield Culture’ have come into use. 1968 A. Powell Military Philosophers iv. 177, I walked up the road.., leaving them [sc. Welshmen] to move eastward towards the urnfields of their Bronze Age home. 1979 B. Cunliffe Celtic World 15/1 This period, generally referred to..as the Urnfield period, is typified by the appearance of large cremation cemeteries, the ashes of the dead interred in urns. The tradition took form in Hungary sometime in the thirteenth century B.C. and was rapidly adopted further west. |
| 1891 Cent. Dict., Urceolina pendula and U. latifolia are border plants from Peru, known in cultivation as *urn-flower. |
| 1888 R. Brown Our Earth & its Story II. 264/1 A separate kind of burial-place are the *urn-graveyards. |
| a 1661 B. Holyday Persius (1673) 295 The hollow womb Of his..*urn-inclosing tomb. |
| 1826 Galt Last of Lairds xxxii. 281 A tall *urn-like china-pot. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. (1836) 407 Thecæ, hollow urn-like cases seated upon a seta or stalk. |
| 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 46 Tray Maker. *Urn Maker. |
| 1846 Lindley Veg. Kingd. 66 *Urnmosses are found in all parts of the world where the atmosphere is humid. 1866 Treas. Bot. 1194/2 Urn-Mosses,..the Bryaceæ or true Mosses. |
| 1848 J. Grant Adv. of Aide-de-camp xii, The dismal aspect of the place—its dark walls and darker *urn-niches. |
| 1901 Guinness Trust, Fulham P. Rd. 6 The *urn room..is fitted with a series of copper kettles. |
| 1857 in W. Eassie Cremation (1875) 127 Burning the Dead, or *Urn-Sepulture..generally considered. |
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 211 Nectary concave, *urn-shaped. 1875 Bennett & Dyer tr. Sachs' Bot. 246 The spermogonia..are urn-shaped receptacles. |
| 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. No. 5773, Marble chess-table and *urn-stand. |
| 1901 Westm. Gaz. 7 Mar. 6/1 The *urn system existing in the French Chamber. |
| 1839 Bailey Festus 54 An *urn-topped column. |
▪ II. † urn, v.1 Sc. Obs. Also 7
uren, 9
ern.
[Of obscure origin.] 1. trans. To cause pain or anguish to (a person); to pain, irritate. Also
absol.| c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 384 So bett I am with strakis sad and sar; The cheyle wattir vrned me mekill mar. 1559 Reg. St. Andrews Kirk Session (S.H.S.) I. 18 Give thei be vexed and urnet with ustioun and urgent appetites of the flesche. a 1600 Montgomerie Misc. Poems xl. 58 Let furious Faits be fearce; Let absence vrne; let Cupids arrou peirce. a 1614 J. Melvill Autob. & Diary (Wodrow Soc.) 270 When he died, I mervelit at my awin hart that was so urened and moved with it. 1808 Jamieson, To urn the ee, to pain the eye, as a mote or a grain of sand does. 1825 ― Suppl. s.v. Ern, Nae sae muckle as would ern your ee. |
2. intr. To feel or suffer pain.
rare—1.
| a 1600 Montgomerie Sonn. xxxvi. 4, I vrne for anger, ȝit I haif no yre. |
▪ III. urn, v.2 (
ɜːn)
[f. urn n. Cf. inurn v.] trans. To deposit (ashes, or bones) in a cinerary urn; to enclose in or as in an urn. Also
transf.| 1612 Two Noble K. i. i. 47 He will not suffer us..To urne their ashes. 1651 W. Barker in Cartwright Poems b 7, Their scatter'd Ashes are rak't up and Urn'd. 1744 Young Nt. Th. vii. 830 When horror universal shall descend, And heav'n's dark concave urn all human race. 1849 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. LXVI. 380 Nature has, during a season, cased and urned its torpid and death-like repose. 1855 Singleton Virgil II. 87 The gathered bones In a bronze casket Corinæus urned. |
† b. To place in a tomb; to bury.
Obs.—1| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, xli, Richard, whose Bones..Slept in a Cottage; Harry doth remove To better lodging; vrnes him, like a King. |
▪ IV. urn obs. f. earn v.;
s.w. dial. var. run v.