pine box
7
5.8
- noun
- US
:
ataúd de pino
- Mandy could not tear her eyes off the plain pine box that held her mother's body.
- a plain pine box
- a simple pine box
- pine box coffin
I've always defined my finish line as a pine box, so I don't like answering hypothetical questions.
- I've always defined my finish line as a pine box, so I don't like answering hypothetical questions.
Examples
-
The church members knew exactly what to do: the women showing Hannah how to wash the body, how to dress it; the men building a fine pine box; the minister's wife, Mrs. Crooker, arranging for the funeral and burial.
Fiction book (2000) -
Mandy could not tear her eyes off the plain pine box that held her mother's body.
Fiction book (1991) -
Now they lower the pine box into the sand and cover it.
Fiction book (1997) -
It's my sworn duty to lay you in a pine box.
-
They carried the pine box into the cemetery behind the church and lowered it into a hole dug for the purpose.
Fiction book (1991) -
A simple coffin-shaped pine box lay nearest the door, the two-piece lid nailed tight on the bottom and hinged open at the top to reveal a quilted satin lining within.
Fiction book (1998) -
When I die, just throw me in a plain pine box, that's all.
-
Many people say they'd prefer a simple pine box and a natural marker to an elaborate, expensive funeral.
Synonyms
287
2.7
A long, narrow wooden box for burying or cremating a dead body
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a simple coffin made from pine' is directly and compositionally derived from 'pine' (wood) + 'box' (container); given the example context 'They placed the body in a pine box,' a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer it denotes a coffin. This noun+noun composition is a straightforward descriptive pattern found cross-linguistically, so the expression is transparent to learners.
Etymology
Pine box may come from the plain wooden boxes made of pine used to hold a dead body. Because these boxes were cheap and simple, pine box came to mean 'a simple coffin'.