Definition of "deathbox"

Once he was asleep again, they brought him back again, bound him, sealed him in his deathbox, muffled the World from him with a black, black pall.

2002, William T. Vollmann, Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith

I always remember hearing infantry men say to us again and again: 'I wouldn't like to go in your deathboxes,' and we always answered: 'And we don't like to walk.'”

2003, Philip Kaplan, Chariots of Fire

Razor's mother hollered and spread her body atop her son's shiny death box. “Why, Lord? Why my chile?!” the woman screamed.

2011, Amaleka McCall, Hard Candy

The local militia, led by their 'jack captain, paid their respects by carrying the death-box and by escorting it.

2011, Ian Watson, The Book of the Stars: Black Current, book 2