urns

Noun

urn (plural urns)

1. A vase with a footed base.
   • A rustic, digging in the ground by Padua, […]found an urn, or earthen pot, in which there was another urn.1648, John Wilkins, Mathematicall Magick. Or, The Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanicall Geometry. […], London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Sa[muel] Gellibrand […], →OCLC
2. A metal vessel for serving tea or coffee.
3. A vessel for the ashes or cremains of a deceased person.
   • So draw him home to those that mourn
     ⁠In vain; a favourable speed
     ⁠Ruffle thy mirror’d mast, and lead
     Thro’ prosperous floods his holy urn.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
4. (figuratively) Any place of burial; the grave.
   • Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, / Tombless, with no remembrance over them.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
5. (Roman, historical) A measure of capacity for liquids, containing about three gallons and a half, wine measure. It was half the amphora, and four times the congius.
6. A hollow body shaped like an urn, in which the spores of mosses are contained; a spore case; a theca.

See all 7 meanings of urn