in Architecture, a square depression or sinking in each interval between the modillions of the Corinthian cornice, and ordinarily filled up with a rose, sometimes with a pomegranate or other enrichment.

in Fortification, denotes a hollow lodgement athwart a dry moat, from six to seven feet deep and from sixteen to eighteen broad; the upper part made of pieces of timber raised two feet above the level of the moat, which little elevation has hurdles laden with earth for its cover- Coffin, and serves as a parapet with embrasures. The coffin is nearly the same with the caponiere; excepting that the last is sometimes made beyond the counterscarp on the glacis, and the coffin always in the moat, taking up its whole breadth, which the caponiere does not. It differs from the traverse and gallery in this, that the latter are made by the besiegers, and the coffin by the besieged. The besieged generally make use of coffins to repulse the besiegers when they endeavour to pass the ditch. To save themselves from the fire of these coffins, the besiegers throw up earth on the side towards the coffin.