Search Result for "sarcophagus": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. a stone coffin (usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions);


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sarcophagus \Sar*coph"a*gus\, n.; pl. L. Sarcophagi, E. Sarcophaguses. [L., fr. Gr. sarkofa`gos, properly, eating flesh; sa`rx, sa`rkos, flesh + fagei^n to eat. Cf. Sarcasm.] 1. A species of limestone used among the Greeks for making coffins, which was so called because it consumed within a few weeks the flesh of bodies deposited in it. It is otherwise called lapis Assius, or Assian stone, and is said to have been found at Assos, a city of Lycia. --Holland. [1913 Webster] 2. A coffin or chest-shaped tomb of the kind of stone described above; hence, any stone coffin. [1913 Webster] 3. A stone shaped like a sarcophagus and placed by a grave as a memorial. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

sarcophagus n 1: a stone coffin (usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions)
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

SARCOPHAGUS, n. Among the Greeks a coffin which being made of a certain kind of carnivorous stone, had the peculiar property of devouring the body placed in it. The sarcophagus known to modern obsequiographers is commonly a product of the carpenter's art.