Definition of "sarcophagus"
sarcophagus
noun
plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses or (rare) sarcophagusses
A stone coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
Quotations
[T]his (venter impiorum inſaturabilis [the insatiable belly of the wicked]) in foure & tvventie houres conſumes many carkaſſes of Fiſhes and Fovvles, and generally tvvice a day all the fleſh therein interred; ſo true a Sarcophagus is the belly: […]A figurative use.
1619, Samuel Purchas, “Mans Retrograde to a Belly, Spider, Idle, Idoll-belly: The Titles, Temples, Sacrifices, Incense, Liturgies, Students, Lawes, Sacraments, Deuotions of God-belly”, in Purchas His Pilgrim. Microcosmus, or The Historie of Man. […], 2nd edition, London: […] [William Stansby, Bernard Alsop, and Thomas Fawcet] for Tho[mas] Alchorn, […], published 1627, page 329
This monument (made to ſtand upon the ground, but novv raiſed much above the eye on a heavy baſe projecting from the vvall) is a ſarcophagus vvith ribbed vvork and mouldings, ſomevvhat antique, placed on a baſement ſupporting pretty large Corinthian columns of alabaſter, vvhich uphold an entablature, and form a ſort of canopy over it.
1762, Horace Walpole, “Painters in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. [Jsaac Oliver.]”, in Anecdotes of Painting in England; […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Farmer […], page 166
The interior of the Taje exceeds the promise given by its external magnificence: on a platform in the centre of a circular hall, are the sarcophaguses of Shah Jehan, and his beloved empress [Mumtaz Mahal], enclosed within a carved screen of the most elaborate tracery and exquisite finish. These sarcophaguses, and the surrounding walls and screens, are covered with flowers and inscriptions of the most delicate mosaic work, in every variety of cornelian, agate, jasper, lapis lazuli, and other precious marbles.
1835, Emma Roberts, “The Taj Mahal, at Agra”, in Views in India, China, and on the Shores of the Red Sea; […], volume I, London: H. Fisher, R. Fisher, & P. Jackson, […], page 22
On the lids of those Tombs; square sarcophaguses, in that silent dim-burning Hall, each with its Soul in torment; the lids open there; they are to be shut at the Day of Judgment, through Eternity.
1840 May 12, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture III. The Hero as Poet. Dante; Shakespeare.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, page 86
The swinging lantern reveals a burial chamber; below him lies a sarcophagus, and it appears to be undisturbed. […] He examines the sarcophagus by the light of the lantern. It is a sumptuous piece of work, decorated with reliefs that show scenes from the life of Achilles. […] Trembling with excitement, Fabrizio [Lazzaro] orders his assistants to lift the heavy sarcophagus lid. The chamber itself seems to be holding its breath. What he finds surpasses his expectations. Inside the sarcophagus lies one of the greatest treasures of the ancient world; Fabrizio has hit the jackpot; he has found the vase.
2004, Robin [Jeremy] Brooks, “Third Fragment: Discovery”, in The Portland Vase: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Mysterious Roman Treasure, New York, N.Y.: HarperCollinsPublishers, page 29
(by extension)
(informal) The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
Quotations
'They move stuff out of the sarcophagus?' / 'I know, crazy people, they're killing themselves from radiation.' […] '[S]o the materials, plutonium, catalysis, are assembled at a site near the sarcophagus?' […] '[W]hat we know is this, they collect the plutonium, etc, from Chernobyl, what they don't have yet – is the know-how. To put the bomb together.'
2012, Tom Bryson, chapter 35, in Sarcophagus, S.l.: TJB Books, page 231
(historical) A type of wine cooler (“a piece of equipment used to keep wine chilled”) shaped like a sarcophagus (sense 1).
Quotations
There is an open sarcophagus-shaped wine-cooler beneath, standing on a plinth. The inside of the wine-cooler may either be lined with lead, or it may contain a block-tin case, with handles, to lift out. Ice is frequently put into these wine-coolers, in order to surround the decanters or bottles set in them, when the wine is to be cooled. Castors are sunk into the plinth of the sarcophagus, that it may be drawn out from beneath the sideboard, and pushed in again at pleasure. […] A sarcophagus with a hinged lid below, fixed on a hollow plinth with castors, is partitioned and lined with lead, so that ice can be put round each separate bottle.
1833, J[ohn] C[laudius] Loudon, “Of the Furniture of Villas”, in An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture; […], London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; […], book III (Designs for Villas, with Various Degrees of Accommodation, and in Different Styles of Architecture), page 1045
(obsolete except Ancient Greece, historical) A kind of limestone used by the Ancient Greeks for coffins, so called because it was thought to consume the flesh of corpses.
Quotations
Near unto Aſſos, a citie in Troas, there is found in the quarries a certaine ſtone called Sarcophagus, vvhich runneth in a direct veine, and is apt to be cloven and ſo cut out of the rocke by flakes: The reaſon of the name is this, becauſe that vvithin the ſpace of fortie daies it is knovvne for certain to conſume the bodies of the dead vvhich are beſtovved therein, skin, fleſh, and bone, all ſave the teeth.
1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXVI.] Of Certaine Stones which will Quickly Consume the Bodies that be Laid therein. Of Others Againe that Preserve Them a Long Time. Of the Stone Called Assius, and the Medicinable Properties thereof.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, page 587
verb
third-person singular simple present sarcophaguses, present participle sarcophagusing, simple past and past participle sarcophagused
(transitive) To enclose (a corpse, etc.) in a sarcophagus (noun sense 1).
Quotations
All waiting: the new-coffined dead, / The handful of mere dust that lies / Sarcophagused in stone and lead / Under the weight of centuries: / Knight, cardinal, bishop, abbess mild, / With last week's buried year-old child.
1862 April, [Dinah Maria Mulock], “Waiting”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume V, number 30, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, London: Macmillan and Co. […], stanza 2, page 464
Was it the Mummy of King Cheops—still sarcophagused in the labyrinthine recesses of the star-y-pointing Pyramid, to mock generations of Egyptologists, past, present, and to come—that had all at once found a tongue within his desiccated jaws?
1876 January 8, “Preface”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume 69, London: […] Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], pages iii–iv
Even the sight of a very great king indeed, sarcophagused under electric light in a hall full of most fortifying pictures, does not hold him [a visitor to the Valley of the Kings, Egypt] too long.
1913, Rudyard Kipling, “[Egypt of the Magicians.] Dead Kings.”, in Letters of Travel (1892–1913), London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1920, page 261