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  1. coffer love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A strongbox.
  2. n. Financial resources; funds.
  3. n. A treasury: stole money from the union coffers.
  4. n. Architecture A decorative sunken panel in a ceiling, dome, soffit, or vault.
  5. n. The chamber formed by a canal lock.
  6. n. A cofferdam.
  7. n. A floating dock.
  8. v. To put in a coffer.
  9. v. Architecture To supply (a ceiling, for example) with decorative sunken panels.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. 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.
  2. n. 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.
  3. n. In fortification, a hollow lodgment across a dry moat, from 6 to 7 feet deep and from 16 to 18 feet broad. The upper part is made of pieces of timber raised 2 feet above the level of the moat, and upon them are placed hurdles laden with earth, which serve as a covering and as a parapet. It is raised by the besieged to repulse besiegers when they endeavor to pass the ditch.
  4. n. A trough in which tin ore is broken to pieces.
  5. n. A kind of caisson or floating dock.
  6. n. A canal-lock chamber.
  7. To deposit or lay up in a coffer: usually with up.
  8. To furnish or ornament with coffers, as a ceiling.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A strongbox: a strong chest or box used for keeping money or valuables safe.
  2. n. architecture An ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome.
  3. n. A cofferdam.
  4. n. A supply or store of money, often belonging to an organization.
  5. v. transitive To put money or valuables in a coffer
  6. v. transitive To decorate something, especially a ceiling, with coffers.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A casket, chest, or trunk; especially, one used for keeping money or other valuables.
  2. n. Fig.: Treasure or funds; -- usually in the plural.
  3. n. (Arch.) A panel deeply recessed in the ceiling of a vault, dome, or portico; a caisson.
  4. n. (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.
  5. n. The chamber of a canal lock; also, a caisson or a cofferdam.
  6. v. To put into a coffer.
  7. v. (Mining.) To secure from leaking, as a shaft, by ramming clay behind the masonry or timbering.
  8. v. To form with or in a coffer or coffers; to furnish with a coffer or coffers.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a chest especially for storing valuables
  2. n. an ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome

Etymologies

  1. From Old French cofre, coffre, from Latin cophinus ("basket"), from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kophinos, "basket"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English cofre, from Old French, alteration of *cofne, from Latin cophinus, basket; see coffin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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

  • “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.”

    The Washington Post: Workers try to repair the sinking sea wall at the Jefferson Memorial

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward said the company was also planning to deploy an underwater box - called a coffer dam - to cover one of the leaks and allow the oil to be pumped safely to the surface.”

    TheState.com: The Buzz

  • “The first of three dome-like structures, known as coffer dams, has been completed.”

    New Orleans Saints Central

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Lists

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Comments

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  • lweber5@scf.edu The coffers of the organization were rapidly filled by the contributions. - Websters Dictionary pg.15 Sep 23, 2010

  • bilby "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'. Sep 13, 2009

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‘coffer’ has been looked up 2584 times, loved by 1 person, added to 23 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.