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:
“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)
“Not a flower, not a flower sweet
On my black coffin let there be strewn.
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)