coffin

CEFRB1

/ˈkɒfɪn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A box used to bury a dead person.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.

Examples

  • He thought his piano would make a good coffin for him.

  • Until my coffin closes I will be your faithful spouse.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The eighth Lenormand card.

  2. A closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial.

  3. The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.

More examples

In context

  • 20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along? I’d always found the royals a cold proposition, Diana excepted, but the sight of that little boy, his head bent, not daring to look up at his mother’s...

  • […] Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, / Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, / Night and day journeys a coffin.

  • Plans to carry the Queen's coffin from Edinburgh to London by rail were scrapped in favour of travel in a Royal Air Force cargo aircraft.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The carpenter measured the oak wood to build a sturdy blank for the funeral.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer. Displaced native Old English þrūh.