Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A strongbox.
  • noun Financial resources; funds.
  • noun A treasury.
  • noun Architecture A decorative sunken panel in a ceiling, dome, soffit, or vault.
  • noun The chamber formed by a canal lock.
  • noun A cofferdam.
  • noun A floating dock.
  • transitive verb To put in a coffer.
  • transitive verb Architecture To supply (a ceiling, for example) with decorative sunken panels.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To deposit or lay up in a coffer: usually with up.
  • To furnish or ornament with coffers, as a ceiling.
  • noun A box, casket, or chest (as now understood, a large chest), especially one used for keeping valuables, as money; an ark; hence, figuratively, a treasury; in the plural, the wealth or pecuniary resources of a person, corporation, nation, etc.
  • noun In architecture, a sunk panel or compartment in a ceiling or soffit, of an ornamental character, usually enriched with moldings and having a rose, pomegranate, star, or other ornament in the center; a caisson.
  • noun In fortification, a hollow lodgment across a dry moat, from 6 to 7 feet deep and from 16 to 18 feet broad.
  • noun A trough in which tin ore is broken to pieces.
  • noun A kind of caisson or floating dock.
  • noun A canal-lock chamber.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A casket, chest, or trunk; especially, one used for keeping money or other valuables.
  • noun Fig.: Treasure or funds; -- usually in the plural.
  • noun (Arch.) A panel deeply recessed in the ceiling of a vault, dome, or portico; a caisson.
  • noun (Fort.) A trench dug in the bottom of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it by a raking fire.
  • noun The chamber of a canal lock; also, a caisson or a cofferdam.
  • noun (Engin.) See Cofferdam, in the Vocabulary.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Cowfish.
  • transitive verb To put into a coffer.
  • transitive verb (Mining.) To secure from leaking, as a shaft, by ramming clay behind the masonry or timbering.
  • transitive verb To form with or in a coffer or coffers; to furnish with a coffer or coffers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A strongbox: a strong chest or box used for keeping money or valuables safe.
  • noun architecture An ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome.
  • noun A cofferdam.
  • noun A supply or store of money, often belonging to an organization.
  • verb transitive To put money or valuables in a coffer
  • verb transitive To decorate something, especially a ceiling, with coffers.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a chest especially for storing valuables
  • noun an ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cofre, from Old French, alteration of *cofne, from Latin cophinus, basket; see coffin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French cofre, coffre, from Latin cophinus ("basket"), from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kophinos, "basket").

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Examples

  • It's no secret the lion's share of the money in King's campaign coffer comes from the electric industry.

    Easter Lemming Liberal News 2008

  • Because most of the sea wall is submerged, engineers had to build what is called a coffer dam -- essentially a steel bathtub inside the Tidal Basin.

    Workers try to repair the sinking sea wall at the Jefferson Memorial 2010

  • Because most of the sea wall is submerged, engineers had to build what is called a coffer dam -- essentially a steel bathtub inside the Tidal Basin.

    Workers try to repair sinking sea wall at Jefferson Memorial 2010

  • They constructed what is called a coffer dam dike that with the velocity that comes through the river, it undermined that, coming in through the lower levels and so forth.

    CNN Transcript Mar 29, 2009 2009

  • Mariamne might want her to become a nun, but the find in the coffer was a portent and had fixed Annais's decision on the matter.

    The Falcons of Montabard Chadwick, Elizabeth 2004

  • It seems "that on the other side of the ocean stands an oak, and on the oak a coffer, and in the coffer a hare, and in the hare a duck, and in the duck an egg, and in the egg the love of the Queen-Maiden."

    Russian Fairy Tales A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore William Ralston Shedden Ralston 1858

  • In such a case as this they make what is called a coffer dam, which is a sort of dam, or dike, made by driving piles close together into the ground, in two rows, at a little distance apart, and then filling up the space between them with earth and gravel.

    Rollo in London Jacob Abbott 1841

  • The first of three dome-like structures, known as coffer dams, has been completed and is now on its way to the site of the Gulf oil spill, BP said Wednesday.

    New Orleans Saints Central 2010

  • The 100-ton concrete and metal construction, called a coffer dam, has been shipped from Louisiana to the waters above the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico.

    WN.com - Photown News 2010

  • The 100-ton concrete and metal construction, called a coffer dam, has been shipped from Louisiana to the waters above the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico.

    WN.com - Photown News 2010

Comments

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  • "Then she thought to keep the branch as long as she might. And for she had no coffer to keep it in, she put it in the earth."

    - Thomas Malory, 'The Holy Grail'.

    September 13, 2009

  • The coffers of the organization were rapidly filled by the contributions. - Websters Dictionary pg.15

    September 24, 2010