Word Direct Answers

What does "hearse" mean?

Hearse: 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. [Obs.] Oxf. Gloss.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument. [Archaic] "Underneath this marble hearse." B. Johnson. Beside the hearse a fruitful palm tree grows. Fairfax Who lies beneath this sculptured hearse. Longfellow.
  2. 3.A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave. [Obs.] Set down, set down your honorable load, It honor may be shrouded in a hearse. Shak.
  3. 4.A carriage specially adapted or used for conveying the dead to the grave.
  4. 5.To inclose in a hearse; to entomb. [Obs.] "Would she were hearsed at my foot." Shak.

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