Crossword clues for coffer
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Coffer \Cof"fer\ (?; 115), n. [OF. cofre, F. coffre, L. cophinus basket, fr. Gr. ?. Cf. Coffin, n.]
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A casket, chest, or trunk; especially, one used for keeping money or other valuables.
--Chaucer.In ivory coffers I have stuffed my crowns.
--Shak. -
Fig.: Treasure or funds; -- usually in the plural.
He would discharge it without any burden to the queen's coffers, for honor sake.
--Bacon.Hold, here is half my coffer.
--Shak. (Arch.) A panel deeply recessed in the ceiling of a vault, dome, or portico; a caisson.
(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.
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The chamber of a canal lock; also, a caisson or a cofferdam.
Coffer dam. (Engin.) See Cofferdam, in the Vocabulary.
Coffer fish. (Zo["o]l.) See Cowfish.
Coffer \Cof"fer\, v. t.
To put into a coffer.
--Bacon.(Mining.) To secure from leaking, as a shaft, by ramming clay behind the masonry or timbering.
--Raymond.To form with or in a coffer or coffers; to furnish with a coffer or coffers.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-13c., from Old French cofre "a chest" (12c., Modern French coffre), from Latin cophinus "basket" (see coffin).
Wiktionary
n. 1 A strongbox: a strong chest or box used for keeping money or valuables safe. 2 (context architecture English) An ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome; a caisson. 3 A cofferdam. 4 A supply or store of money, often belonging to an organization. 5 A trench dug in the bottom of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it with raking fire. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To put money or valuables in a coffer 2 (context transitive English) To decorate something, especially a ceiling, with coffers.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture, is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels were used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also called caissons ('boxes"), or lacunaria ("spaces, openings"), so that a coffered ceiling can be called a lacunar ceiling: the strength of the structure is in the framework of the coffers. The stone coffers of the ancient Greeks and Romans are the earliest surviving examples, but a seventh-century BC Etruscan chamber tomb in the necropolis of San Giuliano, which is cut in soft tufa-like stone reproduces a ceiling with beams and cross-beams lying on them, with flat panels filling the lacunae. For centuries, it was thought that wooden coffers were first made by crossing the wooden beams of a ceiling in the Loire Valley châteaux of the early Renaissance. In 2012, however, archaeologists working under Andrew Wallace-Hadrill at the House of the Telephus in Herculaneum discovered that wooden coffered ceilings were constructed in Roman times. Experimentation with the possible shapes in coffering, which solve problems of mathematical tiling, or tessellation, were a feature of Islamic as well as Renaissance architecture. The more complicated problems of diminishing the scale of the individual coffers were presented by the requirements of curved surfaces of vaults and domes.
A prominent example of Roman coffering, employed to lighten the weight of the dome, can be found in the ceiling of the rotunda dome in the Pantheon, Rome.
In ancient Chinese wooden architecture, coffering is known as zaojing .
A coffer, in architecture, is a sunken panel in a ceiling, soffit or vault.
Coffer may also refer to:
- Coffer (furniture) or chest, a lockable box for storing valuable items
- Coffer (fortification), a hollow lodgement against a dry moat
- Cofferdam, a temporary enclosure used during dam construction
In fortification, coffer a hollow lodgment, against a dry moat, the upper part being made of pieces of timber raised about two feet above the level of the moat. This elevation has hurdles filled with earth which serves as a parapet with embrasures. The coffer is similar to the caponier. The difference is that the former may be made beyond the counterscarp, and the latter is always in the moat. Another difference is that the coffer takes the whole breadth of the moat while the caponier does not.
Usage examples of "coffer".
In some cases, it might be cheaper to offer them a cushy, corporate-style retirement than to keep them hanging around, so they can continue pilfering from government coffers.
Then, as expected, he said he hoped we would satisfy the Dogana that the proper share of all our successful enterprises had been duly paid into the coffers of the Republic.
You vill collect the coffers of gold, but you vill give them to Count Emich of Leiningen instead of to Peter the Hermit!
He went into the hall, and from the mothless marble coffer rived his thickest coat.
Indian opium revenues went straight into the royal coffers and the pockets of the nobility and the oligarchists and plutocrats, and made them billionaires.
Zascai low voices, silhouettes at street corners, or a pickable lock on a field hospital coffer full of medical-grade phials.
The Southern California Rightist Coalition was not the kind of outfit that would let a moderate like Fowler anywhere near their campaign events, or their coffers.
It was the coffer which Ayrton had saved at the risk of his life, at the very instant that the island had been engulfed, and which he now faithfully handed to the engineer.
Himself, who had effected the transfer, had pronounced the roof upkeep and the heating bills too much for even the Kinloch coffers, and had negotiated a retreat to a smaller snugger home in what had once been the kitchen wing with living quarters for a retinue of dozens.
Had Rush gone to Tottie after finally realizing there was no hope of easing even a few dollars out of the Strawcutter coffers?
Ebben Owens was already up to receive them, the big oak coffers in the grain room were swept out, the dry meal poured into them, and Twm the carter, with white cotton stockings kept for the occasion drawn over his feet and legs, stood in the coffers treading the meal into as hard a mass as possible.
There would be no support from its coffers for her unsanctioned husband, but the marriage was acknowledged and tolerated, having been executed with due process before a rural priest of Elua.
Crown wishes to leave the wardenship vacant just now so Charles can add yet a few more tithings to his coffers.
Since then, their sisterline had reaped the dual benefit of yada labor and extra coin for the family coffers.
Yet future generations will be fortified by the abundance of zeel Fen Dane brings to our coffers.