hearse

Noun

WordNet 3.0

Noun (1)

  1. a vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or a cemetery; formerly drawn by horses but now usually a motor vehicle
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Hearse \Hearse\ (h[~e]rs), n. [Etymol. uncertain.] A hind in the second year of its age. [Eng.] --Wright. [1913 Webster]
Hearse \Hearse\ (h[~e]rs), n. [See Herse.]

1.A framework of wood or metal placed over the coffin or tomb of a deceased person, and covered with a pall; also, a temporary canopy bearing wax lights and set up in a church, under which the coffin was placed during the funeral ceremonies. [Obs.] --Oxf. Gloss. [1913 Webster]

2.A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument. [Archaic] "Underneath this marble hearse." --B. Johnson. [1913 Webster]

Beside the hearse a fruitful palm tree grows.— Fairfax[1913 Webster]
Who lies beneath this sculptured hearse.— Longfellow.[1913 Webster]

3.A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

Set down, set down your honorable load, It honor may be shrouded in a hearse.— Shak.[1913 Webster]

4.A carriage or motor vehicle specially adapted or used for conveying the dead to the grave in a coffin. [1913 Webster +PJC]

Hearse \Hearse\, v. t. To inclose in a hearse; to entomb. [Obs.] "Would she were hearsed at my foot." --Shak. [1913 Webster]

The Devil's Dictionary

HEARSE, n. Death's baby-carriage.
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