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)
“Ashtrays to cry into,
the suffering brother of the wood walls,
the forty-eight keys of the typewriter
each an eyeball that is never shut,
the books, each a contestant in a beauty contest,
the black chair, a dog coffin made of Naugahyde....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)