urn

n. [ OE. urne, L. urna; perhaps fr. urere to burn, and sop called as being made of burnt clay (cf. East): cf. F. urne. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

A rustic, digging in the ground by Padua, found an urn, or earthen pot, in which there was another urn. Bp. Wilkins. [ 1913 Webster ]

His scattered limbs with my dead body burn,
And once more join us in the pious urn. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: Any place of burial; the grave. [ 1913 Webster ]

Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Tombless, with no remembrance over them. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Bot.) A hollow body shaped like an urn, in which the spores of mosses are contained; a spore case; a theca. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A tea urn. See under Tea. [ 1913 Webster ]

Urn mosses (Bot.), the order of true mosses; -- so called because the capsules of many kinds are urn-shaped. [ 1913 Webster ]