Urn

[Fr. urne, Sp., Pg., It., & Lat. urna.]

1Sense 1. A vessel of various forms, usually largest in the middle, and furnished with a foot or pedestal, employed for different purposes, as for holding liquids, for ornamental uses, and anciently for holding lots, &c., to be drawn, or for preserving the ashes of the dead after cremation.

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

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

2Sense 2. (Rom. Antiq.) A measure of capacity for liquids, containing about three gallons and a half, wine measure. It was half the amphora, and four times the congius. W. Smith.

3Sense 3. (Bot.) A hollow body shaped like an urn, in which the sporules of mosses are contained; spore-case; theca. Henslow.