Meaning

A framework of wood or metal placed over the coffin or tomb of a deceased person, and covered with a pall; also, a temporary canopy bearing wax lights and set up in a church, under which the coffin was placed during the funeral ceremonies..

Definitions by Sense

1. A framework of wood or metal placed over the coffin or tomb of a deceased person, and covered with a pall; also, a temporary canopy bearing wax lights and set up in a church, under which the coffin was placed during the funeral ceremonies.
2. A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument.
3. A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave.
4. A carriage or vehicle specially adapted or used for transporting a dead person to the place of funeral or to the grave.
5. (dated) To enclose in a hearse; to entomb.
6. Alternative form of hearst (“A hind (female deer) in the second or third year of her age”).

Example Sentences

underneath this sable hearse

Beside the hearse a fruitful palm tree grows,

who lies beneath this sculptured hearse

Set down, set down your honourable load, / If honour may be shrouded in a hearse.

I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!

Word Forms

• hearses
• herse
• hearsing
• hearsed

Related Words

When Should You Use Hearse?

Use hearse when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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