Urn
urn (?), n. (OE. urne, L. urna;perhaps fr. urere to burn, and sop called as being made of burnt
clay (cf. East): cf. F. urne.)
1. A vessel of various forms, usually a vase
furnished with a foot or pedestal, employed for different purposes, as for
holding liquids, for ornamental uses, for preserving the ashes of the dead
after cremation, and anciently for holding lots to be drawn.
A rustic, digging in the ground by Padua, found an
urn, or earthen pot, in which there was another
urn. Bp. Wilkins.
His scattered limbs with my dead body burn,
And once more join us in the pious urn.
Dryden.
2. Fig.: Any place of burial; the grave.
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Tombless, with no remembrance over them. Shak.
3. (Rom. Antiq.) A measure of capacity for
liquids, containing about three gallons and a haft, wine measure. It was
haft the amphora, and four times the congius.
4. (Bot.) A hollow body shaped like an urn,
in which the spores of mosses are contained; a spore case; a
theca.
5. A tea urn. See under Tea.
Urn mosses (Bot.), the order of true
mosses; -- so called because the capsules of many kinds are urn-
shaped.
urn , v. t. To inclose in, or as in, anurn; to inurn.
When horror universal shall descend,
And heavens dark concave urn all human race.
Young.
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