COFFER

A casket, chest, or trunk; especially, one used for keeping money or other valuables. Chaucer. In ivory coffers I have stuffed my crowns. Shak.

Fig.: Treasure or funds; -- usually in the plural. He would discharge it without any burden to the queen's coffers, for honor sake. Bacon. Hold, here is half my coffer. Shak.

A panel deeply recessed in the ceiling of a vault, dome, or portico; a caisson.

A trench dug in the botton of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it by a raking fire.

The chamber of a canal lock; also, a caisson or a cofferdam. Coffer dam. (Engin.) See Cofferdam, in the Vocabulary. -- Coffer fish. (Zoöl.) See Cowfish.

To put into a coffer. Bacon.

To secure from leaking, as a chaft, by ramming clay behind the masonry or timbering. Raymond.

To form with or in a coffer or coffers; to turnish with a coffer or coffers.