Dictionary-Definition.com :: Coffin definition

Definition of 'coffin'

noun

Box in which a corpse is buried or cremated [syn: coffin, casket]

verb

Place into a coffin; "her body was coffined"

From: GCIDE

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. [1913 Webster]
They embalmed him [Joseph], and he was put in a coffin. --Gen. 1. 26. [1913 Webster]
2. A basket. [Obs.] --Wyclif (matt. xiv. 20). [1913 Webster]
3. A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie. [1913 Webster]
Of the paste a coffin I will rear. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
4. A conical paper bag, used by grocers. [Obs.] --Nares. [1913 Webster]
5. (Far.) The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Coffin \Cof"fin\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Coffined; p. pr. & vb. n. Coffining.] To inclose in, or as in, a coffin. [1913 Webster]
Would'st thou have laughed, had I come coffined home? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Devotion is not coffined in a cell. --John Hall (1646). [1913 Webster]

Coffin used in Gen. 50:26 with reference to the burial of Joseph. Here, it means a mummy-chest. The same Hebrew word is rendered "chest" in 2 Kings 12:9, 10.