"coffin window" meaning in All languages combined

See coffin window on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: coffin windows [plural]
Etymology: From the urban legend that coffins were slid out of the windows from upper floors. Head templates: {{en-noun}} coffin window (plural coffin windows)
  1. Synonym of witch window. Synonyms: witch window [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-coffin_window-en-noun-5kdpTmA7 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Architectural elements

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_links": [
    [
      "urban legend",
      "urban legend"
    ],
    [
      "coffin",
      "coffin"
    ]
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the urban legend that coffins were slid out of the windows from upper floors.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "coffin windows",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "coffin window (plural coffin windows)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Architectural elements",
          "orig": "en:Architectural elements",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              35,
              48
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1921, John Henry Walsh, chapter XIV, in Glenwood of Shipbay, Macmillan Publishers, page 95:",
          "text": "He stuck his big shoulders out the coffin window and bellowed at them, he seized their hands impartially and bellowed to them when they were close in the same voice he used for distance.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              48,
              61
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1930 July, Viscountess Wolseley, “Historic Houses of Sussex No. 33—Oxenbridge, in Iden”, in The Sussex County Magazine, volume IV, number 7, page 538:",
          "text": "Beside it, in the front wall of the house, is a coffin window, an object that I have never before come across.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              26
            ],
            [
              144,
              157
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "[1991, Jane Scnhell, Changing Gears: Bicycling America's Perimeter, Milner Press, →ISBN, page 330:",
          "text": "There was a “coffin window” on the stairs. Since most people died at home, space was required to turn the coffin to take it downstairs—hence, a coffin window.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              42
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "[2026 January 16, Ellsworth Toohey, “Vermont's tilted \"witch windows\" were supposedly designed to stop witches”, in BoingBoing, archived from the original on 17 Jan 2026:",
          "text": "Some locals also call them \"coffin windows,\" based on a theory that they were used to slide coffins out of upper floors. Architectural historians find this equally implausible — you wouldn't carry a coffin upstairs to begin with.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of witch window."
      ],
      "id": "en-coffin_window-en-noun-5kdpTmA7",
      "links": [
        [
          "witch window",
          "witch window#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "witch window"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "coffin window"
}
{
  "etymology_links": [
    [
      "urban legend",
      "urban legend"
    ],
    [
      "coffin",
      "coffin"
    ]
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the urban legend that coffins were slid out of the windows from upper floors.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "coffin windows",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "coffin window (plural coffin windows)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Architectural elements"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              35,
              48
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1921, John Henry Walsh, chapter XIV, in Glenwood of Shipbay, Macmillan Publishers, page 95:",
          "text": "He stuck his big shoulders out the coffin window and bellowed at them, he seized their hands impartially and bellowed to them when they were close in the same voice he used for distance.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              48,
              61
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1930 July, Viscountess Wolseley, “Historic Houses of Sussex No. 33—Oxenbridge, in Iden”, in The Sussex County Magazine, volume IV, number 7, page 538:",
          "text": "Beside it, in the front wall of the house, is a coffin window, an object that I have never before come across.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              26
            ],
            [
              144,
              157
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "[1991, Jane Scnhell, Changing Gears: Bicycling America's Perimeter, Milner Press, →ISBN, page 330:",
          "text": "There was a “coffin window” on the stairs. Since most people died at home, space was required to turn the coffin to take it downstairs—hence, a coffin window.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              42
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "[2026 January 16, Ellsworth Toohey, “Vermont's tilted \"witch windows\" were supposedly designed to stop witches”, in BoingBoing, archived from the original on 17 Jan 2026:",
          "text": "Some locals also call them \"coffin windows,\" based on a theory that they were used to slide coffins out of upper floors. Architectural historians find this equally implausible — you wouldn't carry a coffin upstairs to begin with.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of witch window."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "witch window",
          "witch window#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "witch window"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "coffin window"
}

Download raw JSONL data for coffin window meaning in All languages combined (2.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-10-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (1a05e46 and e3d6d4e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.