[f. the sb.: cf. F. coffrer.]
1. trans. To enclose in, or as in, a coffer; to lay up securely; to hoard, to treasure up. Obs. or arch.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 68. He will kepen it hym-self & cofren it faste.
1555. Fardle Facions, I. iv. 43. Diuers of them throwe their dead into Riuers, other cofer them vp in earthen cofres.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 855. The aged man that coffers vp his gold.
1676. Bp. Grove, Vind. Conform. Clergy (1680), 23. He … coffers it up amongst his other choice Expressions.
1805. Southey, Madoc in Azt., xix. They gathered up The ashes of the dead, and coffer’d them Apart.
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., I. iii. 45. This family document of faith is perhaps still coffered among the antiquities of our antiquaries’ collections.
2. Arch. To adorn with coffers (see COFFER sb. 5 a). See COFFERED.
3. Mining. (See quots., and cf. COFFER-DAM.)
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Coffer or Cofer (Derb.), to secure a shaft from leaking by ramming in clay behind the masonry or timbering.
1882. Nature, XXVI. 569. The process of coffering out or damming back water in shafts … by means of a water-tight lining now called tubbing.
