A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people, either for burial or cremation.
Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between coffin and casket. A coffin is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides, while a casket generally denotes a four-sided (almost always rectangular) box.
Read more about Coffin: Etymology, Practices, Design, Cremation, Industry
Famous quotes containing the word coffin:
“According to legend, Dr. Sappington purchased his coffin several years before his death and kept it under his bed, with apples and nuts in it for his visiting grandchildren.”
—Administration in the State of Miss, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“She went in there to muse on being rid
Of relative beneath the coffin lid.
No one was by. She stuck her tongue out; slid.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)