hearse

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A vehicle for conveying a coffin to a church or cemetery.
2. n. Roman Catholic Church A triangular candelabrum used at Tenebrae during Holy Week.
3. n. A framelike structure over a coffin or tomb on which to hang epitaphs.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A canopy, usually of openwork or trellis, set. over a bier, or more rarely over a permanent tomb, and used especially to support candles which were lighted at times of ceremony. A medieval iron hearse, said to be unique, stands in the aisle of Tanfield church, Durham, England, over a tomb of the Marmion family.
2. n. A bier; a bier with a coffin.
3. n. A carriage for conveying a dead person to the grave. The usual modern form has an oblongroofed body, often with glass sides, and a door at the back for the insertion of the coffin.
4. n. A temporary monument erected over a grave.
5. n. A dirge or threnody, or a solemn recital or chant.
6. n. In heraldry, a charge resembling a portcullis or a harrow.
7. To put on or in a hearse.
8. A Scotch form of hoarse.

Wiktionary

1. n. A hind in the second year of its age.
2. n. 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.
3. n. A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument.
4. n. A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave.
5. n. A carriage or vehicle specially adapted or used for transporting a dead person to the place of funeral or to the grave.
6. v. dated To enclose in a hearse; to entomb.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. engraving A hind in the second year of its age.
2. n. obsolete 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.
3. n. Archaic A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument.
4. n. obsolete A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave.
5. n. A carriage or motor vehicle specially adapted or used for conveying the dead to the grave in a coffin.
6. v. obsolete To inclose in a hearse; to entomb.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or a cemetery; formerly drawn by horses but now usually a motor vehicle