urn Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a large vase that usually has a pedestal or feet
  2. noun a large pot for making coffee or tea

WordNet

Urn noun
Etymology
OE. urne, L. urna; perhaps fr. urere to burn, and sop called as being made of burnt clay (cf. East): cf. F. urne.
Definitions
  1. A vessel of various forms, usually a vase furnished with a foot or pedestal, employed for different purposes, as for holding liquids, for ornamental uses, for preserving the ashes of the dead after cremation, and anciently for holding lots to be drawn.
    A rustic, digging in the ground by Padua, found an urn, or earthen pot, in which there was another urn. Bp. Wilkins.
    His scattered limbs with my dead body burn, And once more join us in the pious urn. Dryden.
  2. Fig.: Any place of burial; the grave.
    Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, Tombless, with no remembrance over them. Shak.
  3. (Rom. Antiq.) A measure of capacity for liquids, containing about three gallons and a haft, wine measure. It was haft the amphora, and four times the congius.
  4. (Bot.) A hollow body shaped like an urn, in which the spores of mosses are contained; a spore case; a theca.
  5. A tea urn. See under Tea.
Urn transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To inclose in, or as in, an urn; to inurn.
    When horror universal shall descend, And heaven's dark concave urn all human race. Young.

Webster 1913