coffin window

English

Etymology

From the urban legend that coffins were slid out of the windows from upper floors.

Noun

coffin window (plural coffin windows)

  1. Synonym of witch window.
    • 1921, John Henry Walsh, chapter XIV, in Glenwood of Shipbay, Macmillan Publishers, page 95:
      He stuck his big shoulders out the coffin window and bellowed at them, he seized their hands impartially and bellowed to them when they were close in the same voice he used for distance.
    • 1930 July, Viscountess Wolseley, “Historic Houses of Sussex No. 33—Oxenbridge, in Iden”, in The Sussex County Magazine, volume IV, number 7, page 538:
      Beside it, in the front wall of the house, is a coffin window, an object that I have never before come across.
    • [1991, Jane Scnhell, Changing Gears: Bicycling America's Perimeter, Milner Press, →ISBN, page 330:
      There was a “coffin window” on the stairs. Since most people died at home, space was required to turn the coffin to take it downstairs—hence, a coffin window.]
    • [2026 January 16, Ellsworth Toohey, “Vermont's tilted "witch windows" were supposedly designed to stop witches”, in BoingBoing‎[1], archived from the original on 17 January 2026:
      Some locals also call them "coffin windows," based on a theory that they were used to slide coffins out of upper floors. Architectural historians find this equally implausible — you wouldn't carry a coffin upstairs to begin with.]
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