Sar-cŏph'a-gŭs, n.

n. [Lat. sarcophagus, Gr. σαρκoφάγος, eating flesh, from σάρξ, σαρκός, flesh, and φαγεῖν, to eat; Fr. sarcophage, Sp. & It. sarcófago.]

1. A species of limestone used among the Greeks for making coffins, which was so called because it consumed the flesh of bodies deposited in it within a few weeks. It is otherwise called lapis Assius, or Assian stone, and is said to have been found at Assos, a city of Lycia.
2. Hence, a coffin, or tomb, of the kind of stone described above; hence, generally, a stone coffin; a receptacle for the dead, made of stone.