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Glite Dictionary
pallbearer

pallbearer

12 7.1
A person who helps carry a coffin at a funeral
  • noun
  • /ˈpɔlˌbɛrər/
translation icon : portador del ataúd
  • I'm supposed to be one of the pallbearers.
  • pallbearers at the funeral
  • pallbearers carry the coffin
  • pallbearers lift the casket

And you know, and it's just like when you're dying, who's going to be your pallbearers?

Examples

  • Irby eventually served as one of the state's foreign ambassadors during Wallace's last eight years in office, and he later served as a pallbearer at Wallace's funeral.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Traffic was backed up on Shoreline to let the pallbearers pass.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • You, um... do you think you could be a pallbearer this Saturday?

    My Brother's Wedding (1983)

  • - She asked me to be a pallbearer.

    The Black Sleep (1956)

  • He wants to be a pallbearer at the funeral.

    Swoon (1992)

  • We might be one or two short on the pallbearers.

    The Pallbearer (1996)

  • I'll be one of your pallbearers.

    Jingle All the Way 2 (2014)

  • Jacob joins the other veterans as pallbearers.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • The service closed, the pallbearers lifted the casket and carried it through the French doors to the waiting hearse.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Everyone stood as the pallbearers picked up the casket and carried it slowly down the aisle.

Synonyms

bearer
vspallbearer
63 5.0

A person who carries a coffin at a funeral

is specific to carrying a coffin at funerals rather than many contexts
litter-bearer
vspallbearer
8.4

A person who carries a stretcher to move injured people

carries a coffin at funerals rather than moving injured people

Surface Forms

pallbearer singular
pallbearers plural

Morphology

pallbearer = pall + bearer (transparent) = pall + bear + er

The compound combines 'pall' (coffin-covering cloth) and 'bearer' (one who carries), so the meaning 'person who carries the pall/coffin' is directly predictable.

Etymology

Pallbearer comes from pall, a cloth that covers a coffin and is like a 'cloak', and bearer, meaning one who 'carries'. So a pallbearer is someone who carries the covered coffin, which is why today it means a person who helps carry the coffin at a funeral.