▪ I. coffin, n.
(ˈkɒfɪn)
Forms: 4 cofine, coffyne, (Sc. cowyne), 4–5 cofyn(e, 5 cofynne, cophinne, (coufin), 5–6 coffyn, cophyn(e, 5–7 cophin(e, 6 coffine, Sc. coffyng, 6–7 coffen, 5– coffin.
[ME. cofin, coffyn, etc., a. OF. cofin, coffin, little basket, case, etc., ad. L. cophin-us (later cofin-us), a. Gr. κόϕινος basket.]
† 1. A basket; transl. L. cophinus, Gr. κόϕινος.
[So in OF. and many mod.F. dialects.]
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 62 Þei gedriden and filden twelve coffynes of relif of fyve barly loves. 1382 ― 2 Kings x. 7 Thei..slewen the seventy men, and putten the hevedis of hem in cofynes. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 15 Gedrenge..the fragmentes of the cophinnes remanent. 1542 Elyot Dict., Tibin, a baskette or coffyn made of wyckers or bull rushes, or barke of a tree: such oone was Moyses put in to. 1552 in Huloet. |
† 2. A chest, case, casket, box.
Obs. [So in F.
dial. of Picardy and Lorraine.]
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 135 Of þat þat was in cofre, & in his cofines, He mad his testament. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 672 In chistes smale or coffyns hem doo. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. viii. 19 A Cophyn of Evore. 1480 Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 125 Divers cofyns of fyrre wherein the Kinges books were conveyed. 1552 Surrey Ch. Goods (1869) 48, iiij torches with ij long coffins for them. 1570 Dee Math. Pref., Make a hollow Cube, or Cubik coffen, of Copper, Silver, Tynne, or Wood. 1677 Holyoke Dict., A coffin for a book, Loculamentum. |
3. a. spec. The box or chest in which a corpse is enclosed for burial. (The ordinary current sense.)
[In
Fr. coffin= cercueil occurs in Deguilleville
c 1330.]
| 1525 Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading 25 For mendyng of the cofyn that lyeth on the bere ijs. ob. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 377 He..caused him to be layde in a Coffin of Cypresse. 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Cophin, basket, or chest for a dead body to be put in. 1709 Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 260 Coffins of Stone and Marble. 1720 Swift Death of Demar, His coffers from the coffin could not save. 1817 Wolfe Burial Sir J. Moore iii, No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Not in sheet nor in shroud we wound him. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. Fleet I. 2 The tears..which fall upon a coffin beside an open grave. |
† b. Loosely used for: A bier.
Obs.| 1526 Tindale Luke vii. 14 He went and touched the coffyn [Wyclif bere, 1611 beere]. 1554 in Overall Churchw. Acc. St. Michael's Cornhill (1869) 112 For mendynge of the coffen that carrys the corsses to churche. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 531 The coffin going with a dead corps to a funerall fire, is richly painted. |
c. (
= coffin-spark.) An oblong piece of live coal starting out of the fire with a report: regarded as a prognostic of death.
| 1797 G. Colman Br. Grins, Maid of Moor xxiv, To the fire she drew..When, lo! a coffin out there flew, And in her apron burnt a hole. 1812 Combe Dr. Syntax, Picturesque x. (Chandos) 37 From the fire a coffin flew. |
d. phr. to drive (or put) a nail into any one's coffin: to do a thing that tends to shorten his life.
| 1836 A. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administr. (1837) III. 321 A dram which..‘drives nails into the victim's coffin’, according to the expressive vulgar saying. 1874 M{supc}Carthy Linley Rochford, Every dinner eaten under such conditions is a nail driven into one's coffin. |
e. Naut. Applied to an old, ill-found, unseaworthy vessel, as likely to prove the burying-place of those on board. (
colloq.)
| 1833 Ann. Reg. Chron. 32/2 Did not you say when asked if you would go to sea with her, ‘No, for she will prove a coffin for somebody’? 1844 P. Parley's Annual V. 275 An English gun-brig, commonly called a coffin. 1881 Leslie Nordenskiöld's Voy. Vega I. 277 Floating coffins have often been used in arctic voyages. [1884 Chr. World 7 Feb. 89/4 The coffin-ship must no longer be allowed to sail under British colours.] |
† 4. Cookery.
a. A mould of paste for a pie; the crust of a pie.
Obs.| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 41 Make a cofyne as to smalle pye. c 1420 Cookery Bk. 45 Make fayre past of flowre & water, Sugre, & Safroun, & Salt; & þan make fayre round cofyns þer-of. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. v. ii. 189 Of the paste a coffen I will reare. a 1654 Selden Table-t. (Arb.) 33 The Coffin of our Christmas Pies in shape long, is in imitation of the Cratch. 1750 E. Smith Compl. Housewife 157 Season your lamb with pepper, salt..So put it into your coffin. |
† b. A pie-dish or mould.
Obs.| 1580 in Wadley Bristol Wills (1886) 225 Twelve voyders; a Custerd coffyn. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 82. 1602 Plat Delightes for Ladies, Coffins of white plate. a 1662 Heylin Laud ii. 302 Which Notes..he kept in the Coffin of a Pye, which had been sent him by his Mother. |
5. A paper case;
spec. a receptacle made by twisting paper into a conical form or ‘cornet’, to contain groceries, etc., or for use as a filter; still applied by printers to small paper bags of this shape to hold spare type, superfluous sorts, etc.
| 1577 Frampton Joyful News (1580) 42 The smoke of this Hearbe, which they receaue at the mouth through certaine coffins, suche as the Grocers do vse to put in their Spices. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. iii. Chem. Conclus. 55 Coffyns of paper, such as the Confit-makers vse. 1634 J. Bate Myst. Nat. & Art 70 To make the coffins [for fireworks], you must take paper, parchment, or strong canuasse, [and] rowle it hard upon a rowler. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 52, I took five coffins of filtrating paper. 1772 Monro Min. Waters in Phil. Trans. LXII. 23, I..examined the coffin through which the salts..had passed. 1841 Savage Dict. Printing 173 These conical papers are called coffins. 1888 Jacobi Printer's Vocab. 23. |
6. Farriery. The whole of a horse's hoof below the coronet, forming a horny body enclosing a hollow space.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 320 From the pastern down to the coffin of the hoof. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict., Hoof-Loosning, a Dissolution or dividing of the Horn or Coffin of a Horse's Hoof from the Flesh, at the Setting on of the Cronet. 1785 Sportsman's Dict. in N.W. Linc. Gloss., Coffin [the hoof of a horse, that is], all the horn that appears when he has his foot set on the ground. |
7. Printing.
a. The wooden frame enclosing the stone or bed of the old wooden hand-printing press.
b. That part of a printing machine on which the forme of type is laid; the carriage of a printing machine.
coffin-block, an angular wooden block with brass rules attached to it, which rules are raised above the block so that a stereotype or electrotype plate may be placed inside the hollow frame thus formed.
| 1659 Hoole Comenius' Vis. World (1777) 118 Which being put under the spindle, on the coffin, and pressed down with a bar, he maketh to take impression. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc. II. 52 The Planck of the Carriage is an Elm-Planck..upon this Planck at its fore-end is firmly nailed down a square frame..called the Coffin, and in it the stone is bedded. 1808 C. Stower Printer's Gram. 326 At the hinder end of the frame of the coffin, two iron joints are fastened. 1841 W. Savage Dict. Printing 173 Coffin, that part of a wooden press in which the stone is bedded. 1888 Jacobi Printer's Vocab. 23 Coffin, the carriage or bed of a cylindrical machine or platen press. |
8. A case in which articles are baked or fired in a furnace;
= F.
cassette.
| 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 372 A Coffin made of Clay, fitted to the Iron intended to be hardened. 1756 Dict. Arts & Sc. s.v. Porcelain, Each piece of Porcelain..is disposed, in the furnace, in its separate case, or coffin. 1799 G. Smith Laborat. I. 200 Take some potter's clay, to make a coffin round your plant. |
† 9. The case of a chrysalis.
Obs.| 1711 Phil. Trans. XXVII. 346 A very strange hairy [Catterpillar] with a Pea-like Coffin. Ibid., Fig. 11, 12 and 13. are the Moth, Catterpillar, and Coffin. |
† 10. The calyx of a flower.
Obs.| 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Adjusting, Florists..say, I will adjust a Pink; and to do this..each of [the petals] shall be so dispos'd, that the Pink becomes larger thereby, because the Extremities of their Coffins have been a little curv'd. |
11. Mining.
a. ‘An old open working (
Cornwall).
b. The mode of open working by casting up ore and waste from one platform to another, and so to the surface’ (Raymond
Mining Gloss.).
| 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 141 This fosse they call a coffin, which they laid open several fathoms in length. |
12. Milling. (See
quot.)
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Coffin..one of the sockets in the eye of the runner, which receives the ends of the driver. The term is applied to other depressions, especially to such as are hollowed or chipped out. |
13. Comb., as
coffin-case,
coffin-lid,
coffin-maker,
coffin-measurement,
coffin-tap,
coffin-worm;
coffin-fashioned,
coffin-headed,
coffin-shaped, etc.,
adjs.;
coffin-bone, a small spongy bone in a horse's hoof, being the last phalangeal bone of the foot;
† coffin-cloth, a cloth to cover a coffin, a pall;
† coffin-cutter, a coffin-maker;
† coffin-dam = coffer-dam;
† coffin-house, a mortuary; a house where the ‘parish coffin’ was kept;
coffin-joint, the joint at the top of a horse's hoof;
coffin-nail, (
a) a nail used in making a coffin; (
b)
slang (
orig. U.S.), a cigarette (
cf. nail n. 7 d);
coffin-plate, a metal plate set in a coffin-lid, bearing the name of the deceased person, usually with dates of birth and death;
coffin-ship (see sense 3 e);
coffin-spark (see 3 c);
coffin-stone, a stone shaped like a coffin-lid;
coffin-stool, a stand or support for a coffin;
Coffin Texts, texts inscribed on the inside of coffins during the Middle Kingdom in Egypt;
† coffin-tomb, a stone coffin, sarcophagus;
coffin-wood, wood used for making coffins;
spec. elm.
| c 1720 Gibson Farrier's Guide i. vi. (1738) 94 The *Coffin-bone..is so called from its hollowness. 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. V. 522/2 A semicircular disc, resembling that of the coffin-bone of the Horse. |
| 1908 Chambers's Jrnl. July 527/2 He had propped a *coffin-case against one corner of the tomb. 1954 T. Gunn Fighting Terms 15 Though coffin-case Was ready to hold life. |
| 1625 Par. Reg. St. Margaret's, Durham, Mrs. Elsebeth Hall..dyd give..for the use of the poor..a *cofyn clothe. |
| 1603 Dekker Wond. Yeare Wks. (Grosart) I. 120 One of the new-found trade of *Coffin-cutters. |
| 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1539 An other would have made a *coffin dam, wherof the cost would have been infinite. |
| 1868 Ld. Houghton Select. fr. Wks. 185 The *coffin-fashioned tomb. |
| 1890 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 11 With 'is *coffin'eaded shield an' shovel-spear. |
| 1611 Churchw. Acc. St. Marg. Westm. (Nichols 1797) 30 Work done about the two north gates in the church-yard and about the *coffin-house being uncovered with the great wind. |
| 1683 A. Snape Anat. Horse iv. xix. (1686) 181 The *Coffin-joint on which the Hoof grows. 1847 Youatt Horse vii. 157 A strangely formidable disease..called ‘coffin-joint lameness’. |
| 1816 Byron Parisina xix, Hid Like dust beneath the *coffin lid. 1845 Ecclesiologist IV. 16 Stones like coffin lids in shape and detail. |
| 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 147 Run-away slaves, hangmen, and *coffin-makers. 1838 Dickens O. Twist iv, He was to go..as general house-lad to a coffin-maker's. |
| c 1865 G. Gore in Circ. Sc. I. 223/2 Buckles, *coffin-nails, hooks-and-eyes. 1888 Texas Siftings 18 Feb. 8/1 A youth..puffed at an ill-smelling coffin nail. 1901 A. G. Robinson Philippines 263 For a package containing thirty ‘coffin-nails’ the price was three and a half cents, American money. 1928 Wodehouse Money for Nothing ii. 34 Most of these birds [sc. invalids in a sanatorium] would give their soul for a coffin-nail. 1967 ‘L. Egan’ Nameless Ones x. 118 Let me pay for my own coffin nails. |
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist v, *Coffin-plates, elm-chips, bright-headed nails. |
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 159 The *coffin-spark burning my holiday gown. |
| 1845 Ecclesiologist IV. 17 Many *coffin-stones may be seen in the pavement where no coffin would be found..underneath. |
| 1886 T. Hardy Woodlanders ii, A little round table, curiously formed of an old *coffin-stool, with a deal top nailed on. |
| 1851 H. Melville Whale li. 259 Every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a *coffin-tap. |
| 1912 J. H. Breasted Relig. Anc. Egypt viii. 273 Written on the inner surfaces of the heavy cedar coffins..are found..mortuary texts... These texts as a class are sometimes designated as the Book of the Dead... I have for convenience termed them *Coffin Texts, a designation drawn from the place in which they are found, and thus parallel with the Pyramid Texts. 1947 I. E. S. Edwards Pyramids of Egypt v. 153 The texts..were written on the interior surfaces of the rectangular wooden coffins used in that period—a fact which has caused them to become known as the Coffin Texts. |
| 1727 A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. xi. 121 In the middle..stood a *Coffin-tomb, about three Foot high, and seven Foot long. |
| 1883 J. D. Hooker Let. 17 June in Life (1918) II. xl. 251 We have ascertained the origin of Chinese Cassia, of the Star Anise, and of the *Coffin wood. 1909 Kipling Actions & Reactions 42 We ain't goin' to lay any axe-iron to coffinwood here. |
| 1820 Keats Eve St. Agnes xlii, Witch, and demon, and large *coffin-worm. |
▪ II. coffin, v. (
ˈkɒfɪn)
[f. prec. n.] 1. trans. To place or enclose in a coffin.
| 1564 Vestry Minutes St. Helen's Bishopsgate 5 Mar., None shall be bury'd within the church, unless the dead corpse be coffined in wood. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 193. 1654 Gayton Pleasant Notes iii. v. 97 Men whom he..had coffin'd up. 1823 Galt Entail I. xxxv. 304 He assisted..in the ceremonial of the coffining. 1861 Sat. Rev. XII. 253/1 Sometimes they coffined their dead in boats or in the trunks of trees. |
2. transf. and
fig. To enclose as in a coffin; to close up inaccessibly.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 90 b, [Quinces] are best kept coffened betwixt two hollowe Tiles, well closed on every side with claie. 1605 B. Jonson Volpone i. i, Coffin them alive In some kind clasping prison. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. Dict., To Coffin themselves, is said of Flowers that shrivel up and dry away in their Buds without flowing or spreading. 1791 D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1858) I. 9 The tomb of books, when the possessor will not communicate them, and coffins them up in the cases of his library. 1862 Thackeray Philip v, The cards are coffined in their boxes. |
† 3. To enclose in a ‘coffin’ of paste.
Obs.| 1621 B. Jonson Gipsies Metam. Wks. (1692) 623/1 A reverend painted Lady was..coffin'd in Crust till now she was hoary. 1884 Leisure H. June 374/2 Game was often coffined, so was fish. |
Hence
ˈcoffined ppl. a.| 1598 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 263 (R.) They keep the dead in the house..coffined. 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. ii, Departed soules That lodge in coffin'd trunkes. 1821 Blackw. Mag. VIII. 615 On meal-ark lid he rests his coffin'd ware. 1854 Stanley Hist. Mem. Canterb. iii. (1857) 134 The coffined body lay in state at Westminster. |