casket
casket Lexical Profile
casket Game Scores & Validity
• noun
North American A rectangular, often lined and ornamented box in which a deceased person is placed for burial or cremation; a coffin.
"Six pallbearers slowly carried the polished oak casket down the steps of the church."
A small, often ornamental box or chest used for holding jewels, letters, or other valuable objects.
"The museum displayed a 16th-century silver casket once used by the queen to store her correspondence."
• verb
To enclose or place in a casket.
"After the preparation was complete, the funeral director carefully casketed the remains prior to the viewing."
Word Nuance & Usage
In contemporary funeral terminology, a casket is typically a four-sided rectangular box with a hinged lid, whereas a coffin is traditionally six- or eight-sided and tapers at the head and feet.
• Rhymes for casket
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Late Middle English, originally meaning a small chest for jewels or letters, from Anglo-Norman French 'cassette' (diminutive of 'casse', meaning box), from Latin 'capsa'. The North American sense of a burial box emerged in the mid-19th century as a euphemism promoted by undertakers.