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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
bier
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ An archbishop presided at her requiem and her bier was carried through the city by leading members of the civil authorities.
▪ Even the female mourners, who followed the bier, were few in number and boringly subdued.
▪ She made an effort to compose her mind to do just that, and kept her eyes firmly on the bier.
▪ This was a bier, he said.
▪ We removed the harness from the horse and made a rough bier for the King's corpse.
▪ Without showing any sign of emotion he stood for a while at the head of the bier.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bier

Bier \Bier\, n. [OE. b[ae]e, beere, AS. b?r, b?re; akin to D. baar, OHG. b[=a]ra, G. bahre, Icel barar, D? baare, L. feretrum, Gr. ?, from the same ?? bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barrow.]

  1. A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave.

  2. (Weaving) A count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woolen cloth.
    --Knight.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
bier

Old English bær (West Saxon), ber (Anglian) "handbarrow, litter, bed," from West Germanic *bero (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German bara, Old Frisian bere, Middle Dutch bare, Dutch baar, German Bahre "bier"), from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry; to bear children," and thus related to the Old English verb beran "to bear" (see bear (v.)), making a bier etymologically anything used for carrying, only later limited to funerary sense. Since c.1600, spelling influenced by French bière, from Old French biere, from Frankish *bera, from the same Germanic root.

Wiktionary
bier

n. 1 A litter to transport the corpse of a dead person. 2 A platform or stand where a body or coffin is placed. 3 A count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woollen cloth.

WordNet
bier
  1. n. a coffin along with its stand; "we followed the bier to the graveyard"

  2. a stand to support a corpse or a coffin prior to burial

Wikipedia
Bier

A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse, is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.

In Christian burial, the bier is often placed in the centre of the nave with candles surrounding it, and remains in place during the funeral.

The bier is a flat frame, traditionally wooden but sometimes of other materials. In antiquity it was often a wooden board on which the dead were placed, covered with a shroud. In modern times, the corpse is rarely carried on the bier without being first placed in a coffin or casket, though the coffin or casket is sometimes kept open.

A bier is often draped with cloth to lend dignity to the funeral service. The modern funeral industry uses a collapsible aluminium bier on wheels, known as a "church truck" to move the coffin to and from the church or funeral home for services.

Biers are generally smaller than the coffin or casket they support for reasons of appearance. As a result, they are not particularly stable, and can tip over unless well-centered and undisturbed.

The Carmelite Priory at Mdina, Malta, has a colorful bier on display that was used to carry the monks or friars before they were buried without a coffin.

Bier (disambiguation)

A bier is a flat frame used to carry a corpse to burial.

Bier or Biers may also refer to:

Bier (surname)

Bier is a German surname, meaning "beer". Notable people with the surname include:

  • August Bier (1861–1949), German surgeon and pioneer of anesthesiology
  • Martin Bier (1854–1934), German chess player
  • Steven Bier Jr. (born 1964), former stage name Madonna Wayne Gacy, former keyboard player for Marilyn Manson
  • Susanne Bier (born 1960), Danish film director

Usage examples of "bier".

The seagull was the coat of arms for Clan Sealender, and upon the bier must have been King Agates Sealender, the last of his line, on his way to be prepared for the gods.

She described seeing the bier of King Agates Sealender and listening in on the conversation between the castellan and the priest.

Romans: there they opened their ranks, and made a ring round about a space, amidmost of which was a little mound whereon was set the bier of Thiodolf.

In front of the altar the bier was set down and the priests fell back, leaving Atene and her uncle standing alone before the corpse.

After the service in the church the procession of choir and clergy, headed by the crucifer, issues from the doorway, followed by stalwart men carrying the bier upon their shoulders.

Hij wenste dat hij de tijd had om over dat alles eens diep na te denken, maar er was te veel gaande en zelfs als het een tijdje wat rustiger was, was hij geneigd te mediteren over bier en honkbal.

Here was a poor girl putting aside the terrors which she naturally had of death to go watch alone by the bier of the mistress whom she loved, so that the poor clay might not be lonely till laid to eternal rest.

The image of Corsi lying supine with her axe under her arm reminded Lense of a drawing she had once seen of a dead Viking warrior resting on a bier with his weapon at his side.

Thundering for Liberator blood, the masses stood watching the platform, bier and shrine dissolve into a wall of solid fire, not moving again until the blaze died away and the whole of Rome was filled with the dizzying, beautiful smell of burning aromatics.

He craned his head back and saw the immense gold warshield of Prince Nicor suspended by silken cords immediately above and between the two biers.

More shocked and afraid than he had thought to be, Antony inched up to the bier and looked into the dreaming countenance.

The body, neatly wrapped in a new white tappa, was laid out in an open shed of cocoanut boughs, upon a bier constructed of elastic bamboos ingeniously twisted together.

On nothing else could Tempus reach a consensus: not on where the Stepsons would best be fielded next, or whether Successors or specials should continue to be integrated into his shock troops, nor even if Tyse was a suitable permanent base for his Sacred Banders, though a manifestation of Abarsis on bier day in the high peaks had convinced the fighters themselves of that.

Covering him from the waist down, they had laid a pall of Haldane crimson worked with the royal arms, supple with silken embroidery and applique, spilling off the sides and end of the bier and over the shoulders of the knights at that end.

As help me God, when that I saw him go After the bier, methought he had a pair Of legges and of feet so clean and fair, That all my heart I gave unto his hold.