coffin n.1
1. a piecrust.
 | At an Ordinarie (1925) [facs.] 116: Now Cookes begin to make more Coffins then Carpenters, and burie more whole meate then Sextons. |
2. (US) a clumsy, heavy boot or shoe.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | College Words 51: Coffin. At the University of Vermont, a boot, especially a large one [DA]. | |
| Tramp Abroad 547: In the seat thus pirated, sat two Americans, greatly incommoded by that woman’s majestic coffin-clad feet . | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Apr. 4/1: In boots, David Buchanan takles forty-eights, exactly coffin size. |
3. (US Und.) a safe.
| ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 132: coffin, n. A safe. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 46/1: Coffin. 1. A safe. | |
| , | | DAS. |
4. (US) a musical instrument case.
| Dly News (NY) 3 Nov. 31C/1: Coffin — instrument case. |
5. (US, Western) a trunk.
| Cowboy Lingo 38: Trunks were ‘coffins’. |
6. (US Und.) a prison cell.
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 46/1: Coffin. [...] A cell. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. (US campus) a heavy smoker.
| ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 28: coffin-dodger, n. A person much addicted to cigarette smoking. | |
| ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 207: coffin-dodger, a cigarette fiend. |
2. an old person, prob. ill.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | No Surrender 60: Fucking coffin dodgers. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Trainspotting 14: Some coffin-dodger must have put it [i.e. some wallpaper] up years ago. | |
| Viva La Madness 94: A shithole boozer in some backwater, full of coffin-dodgers. |
(US) a corpse.
| Nick of the Woods III 36: He ar’n’t much to speak on, for all of his looking so much like coffin-meat at the first jump. |
(US) liquor, esp. that which was sold during the Prohibition era (1920–33).
| Sacramento Dly Record (CA) 24 Dec. 1/1: Pass the coffin varnish this way, Lieutenant. | |
| Forty Liars 16: We gather about the camp fire [...] with the inspiration of six fingers of agency coffin varnish. | |
| Dundee Courier 27 May 2/6: Todtenbaum Firniss, or coffin varnish, must be a delightful liquor upon which to get drunk. | |
| Dalles Dly Chron. (OR) 22 jan. 3/1: Two unfortunates were before the city recorder [...] charged with being loaded with double distilled coffin varnish. | |
| ‘The Double Trail’ Cattle Brands 🌐 If there was any one thing that he shone in, it was rustling coffin varnish during the early prohibition days along the Kansas border. | |
| Hist. of Arizona 169: Mr. ‘Waco Bill’ was a tough in the truest sense of the term, and being from half to three-quarters full of the worst liquor to be found in Tucson [...] some of the vilest coffin varnish on the mundane sphere. | |
| in Amer. Mercury n.p.: The distiller now makes pure alcohol. The Prohibition Unit transforms 60,000,000 gallons of it into coffin varnish each year, knowing that 6,000,000 gallons will reach the stomachs of human beings. | |
| (ref. to 1850s) Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 568: It is to those days before the Civil War that we owe many of the colorful American terms for strong drink, still current, e.g., [...] coffin-varnish, bust-head, stagger-soup, tonsil-paint, squirrel-whiskey and so on. | |
| Everybody’s Digest 86: ‘Coffin varnish’ for whisky was once in frequent popular use and is occasionally heard today [DA]. | |
| et al. DAUL 46/1: Coffin-varnish. (Prohibition era) Any beverage with a denatured alcohol base. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| posting at www.tuckova.net 🌐 I will be thinking of you while I toss back my daily ration of coffin varnish and coffin nails. |