Forms: 4 cofere, coofer, 4–5 cofre, cofur, 4–6 coffre, 4–7 cofer, 5 cofir, cofyr(e, (cowffer, coufre, cophor), 6 coafer, (cofar, coffar, coffur), 4– coffer. [ME. cofre, coffre, etc., a. OF. cofre, coffre:—L. cophin-um, nom. cophinus, a. Gr. κόφινος basket; cf. COFFIN. The phonetic development (through *cof’no) is the same as in L. ordin-em, F. ordre, L. *Londinus, F. Londres. For the extension of sense, cf. (in Du Cange) Capit. de Villis, cap. 62: ‘de cofinis id est scriniis.’]
1. A box, chest: esp. a strong box in which money or valuables are kept.
c. 1300. Beket, 1925. Ich have a lute cofre … Ther beoth ȝut inne atte leste eiȝte hondred pound.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 1939. They brake coffers and took tresours.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 843. He gooth vn to his cofre And broghte gold.
1463. Bury Wills (1850), 25. The seid William to have … al my … cofferys, and tubbes wid alle othir ostilmentys. Ibid., 33. A lityl grene coffre for kerchys.
1548. W. Thomas, Ital. Gram. & Dict. (1567), Cassa, a cheste or coafer.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. iii. 134. These shot and bullets must be carried in coffers.
1607. Shaks., Timon, I. ii. 199. He commands vs to prouide, and giue great guifts, and all out of an empty Coffer.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. VII. 28. Several coffers and cabinets … were fill’d with stuffs of gold.
c. 1800. K. White, Poet. Wks. (1837), 80. My breast ’s my coffer, and my God ’s my hope.
1802. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, iii. 25. A large iron-bound coffer.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, xxiv. He owns not a slave nor any coffer.
b. In the plural often equivalent to ‘treasury,’ and hence ‘funds, pecuniary resources.’
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 192. For alle are we crystes creatures and of his coffres riche.
1413. Lydg., Pilgr. Sowle, III. iv. (1483), 52. Al went … in to your owne Cofres.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 112. Whereby thou mayest … enrich thy cofers.
1692. Dryden, St. Euremont’s Ess., 198. As long as we have Money in our Coffers.
1721. Swift, South Sea. A million in his coffers.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Fr. Wines & Pol., vi. 82. The coffers of the government had long been empty.
1867. Smiles, Huguenots Eng., i. (1880), 2. The first great efforts were made to fill the coffers of Rome by the sale of indulgences.
† 2. An ark. Applied to Noah’s ark, the ‘ark’ of bulrushes in which Moses was laid, and the ‘ark of God.’ Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 310. Make to þe … A cofer closed of tres.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 5614 (Trin.). A cofur of ȝerdes dud she [Moses’ mother] be wrouȝt.
1388. Wyclif, Ex. xxv. 10. Ioyne ȝe togidere an arke [MS. c. 1420 arke ether cofere].
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. Heb., 21. They put it in a lytle cofer, and layde it oute vpon a ryuers banke.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 117. [David’s] Dance … in the Procession of the sacred Coffer.
† 3. A coffin. Obs.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 177. The piler elm, the cofre unto careyne.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, I. iv. (1554), 6 b. Whan yt death nayled them in their coffers.
1488. Will of Batte (Somerset Ho.). My body to be buryed in a cofer of tree.
1550. Nicolls, Thucyd., 53 b (R.). A great coffer of Cypres. Into whiche they did putt the boanes of them, that were dead of that trybe.
1555. [see COFFER v. 1].
† 4. Coffer of the heart: the pericardium. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxvi. (1495), 149. Abowte the herte is a maner clothynge that hyghte the shryne and the cofre of the hert. Ibid., 150. The herte … greuyd by some postume that infecteth the cofre therof.
5. Arch. a. A sunk panel in a ceiling or soffit, of ornamental character, usually decorated in the centre with a flower or the like.
1664. Evelyn, trans. Freart’s Archit., 138. Those [are call’d] the Cofers wherein are cut the Roses,… which adorn the spaces ’twixt the heads of the Modilions and Mutules.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 506. The coffers of the soffit of the cornice are square.
1845. Athenæum, 11 Jan., 48. On the grounds of the coffers forming the lacunaria of the ceilings.
b. A space within a wall, pier, etc., filled up with concrete, rubble, or loose material. ? Obs.
1715. Leoni, Palladio’s Archit., 14. The ancient walls of Naples … are made of two rows of free stones … bound together with other crossing rows, so that the space or Coffers … were filled up with stones or earth.
† 6. Fortification. (See quot.) Obs.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Coffer, in fortification, denotes a hollow lodgment, athwart a dry moat, from six to seven feet deep, and from sixteen to eighteen feet broad; the upper part made of pieces of timber raised two feet above the level of the moat; which little elevation has hurdles laden with earth for its covering; and serves as a parapet, with embrasures. The coffer is nearly the same with the caponiere…. The besieged generally make use of coffers to repulse the besiegers, when they endeavour to pass the ditch.
1755. in Johnson; and in later Dicts.
7. Mining. a. A trough in which tin-ore is broken to pieces. ? Obs.
1671. Phil. Trans., VI. 2108. Which with the Ores falls down into the Coffer (i. e. a long square box of the firmest timber, 3 foot long and 11/2 foot over).
b. ‘A rectangular plank frame, used in timbering levels’ (Raymond, Mining Gloss., 1881).
8. Ordnance Survey. Applied to wooden troughs used to support the chain in measuring a base-line of an Ordnance Survey.
1785. Roy, Surveying, in Phil. Trans., LXXV. 452. Each coffer consisted of three boards about half an inch thick. Ibid. (1800), XC. 557. The apparatus for the measurement, consisting of … pickets, iron heads, and a new set of coffers.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 217/2. In the actual measurement the measuring chain was not supported on coffers, or stretched by a constant weight.
9. Hydraulics. a. A caisson or water-tight box: cf. COFFER-DAM 1. b. A kind of caisson or floating dock. c. ‘The lock for a barge’ (Simmonds).
1822. Trans. Soc. Arts, XL. 125. c c the coffer slung by the ropes d d [a watertight box used in repairing a ship’s side, below the water line; elsewhere called a caisson].
10. in FIRE-COFFER, q.v.
11. Comb., as † coffer-key, -lid (also fig.), -like adj.; coffer-fish, a trunk-fish, a species of Ostracion; coffer-slide valve, a box slide-valve of a steam-engine. See also COFFER-DAM, -WORK.
1884. J. Colborne, Hicks Pasha, 14. The extraordinary *coffer-fish … preserved and sold at Suez to homeward-bound Anglo-Indians.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 532. Thryft hath lost her *cofer kaye.
1483. Cath. Angl., 70. A *Corfyrled [v.r. Cofer leyd], arculus.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 1127. She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes.
1850. Prescott, Mexico, I. 338. The huge Cofre de Perote, which borrows its name … from the *coffer-like rock on its summit.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 135. A *coffer-slide valve, which requires no packing to make it steam-tight, as there is always a vacuum under it.
