A sarcophagus is a large decorative container in which a dead body was placed in ancient times. an Egyptian sarcophagus. sarcophagi a decorated stone box for a dead body, used in ancient times
(plural: sarcophagi) A stone container that usually housed the coffin and mummy The surface was often inscribed with texts to assist the deceased in the journey through the underworld One often finds the word sarcophagi being applied to the coffin within
A large stone coffin usually decorated with sculpture and/or inscriptions The term is derived from two Greek words meaning flesh and eating, which are applied to a kind of limestone in ancient Greece, since the stone was said to turn flesh to dust
container for a corpse or mummy; the term originally referred to a large stone receptacle that held one or more smaller, wooden coffins but was later applied to any coffin, whether made of wood, stone, gold, silver, or some other material
Early sarcophagi were made of limestone, a flesh-eating stone which when carved in the shape of a coffin quickly disposed of the corpse so that the monument could be used for another family member Modern sarcophagi are made of granite or other fasting stone
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
[ sär-'kä-f&-g& ] (noun.) 1619. Latin sarcophagus limestone used for coffins, from Greek sarkophagos, literally, flesh-eating stone, from sark- sarc- + phagein to eat; more at BAKSHEESH.