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Coffer vs Coffin - What's the difference?

coffer | coffin |

In transitive terms the difference between coffer and coffin

is that coffer is to decorate something, especially a ceiling, with coffers while coffin is to place in a coffin.

coffer

English

Alternative forms

* copher (obsolete) * cophre (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A strongbox: a strong chest or box used for keeping money or valuables safe.
  • (architecture) An ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome; a caisson.
  • * 1979 , Cormac McCarthy, Suttree , Random House, p.135:
    • Prolapsed and waterstained ceiling, the sagging coffers .
  • A cofferdam.
  • A supply or store of money, often belonging to an organization.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • He would discharge it without any burden to the queen's coffers .
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hold, here is half my coffer .
  • A trench dug in the bottom of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it with raking fire.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To put money or valuables in a coffer
  • To decorate something, especially a ceiling, with coffers.

    • External links

    * * *

    coffin

    English

    (wikipedia coffin)

    Alternative forms

    * cophin (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An oblong closed box in which a dead person is buried.
  • (obsolete) A basket.
  • * Wycliffe's Bible
    • And all ate, and were filled. And they took the reliefs of broken gobbets, twelve coffins full (Matthew 14:20).
  • A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Of the paste a coffin I will rear.
  • (obsolete) A conical paper bag, used by grocers.
    • (Nares)
  • The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.
    • (Webster 1913)

    Usage notes

    The type of coffin with upholstery and a half-open lid (mostly in the United States) is called a casket.

    Synonyms

    * casket (US)

    Derived terms

    * coffin bone * coffinlike * coffin nail * coffin ride * coffin ship * encoffin * encoffiner * encoffinment

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To place in a coffin.
  • * 2007 , (Barbara Everett), "Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances," London Review of Books , 29:6, p. 21:
    • The chest in which she is coffined washes ashore and is brought to the Lord Cerimon.

    Synonyms

    * encoffin