Definition of sarcophagus

• n. - A species of limestone used among the Greeks for making coffins, which was so called because it consumed within a few weeks the flesh of bodies deposited in it. It is otherwise called lapis Assius, or Assian stone, and is said to have been found at Assos, a city of Lycia.
• n. - A coffin or chest-shaped tomb of the kind of stone described above; hence, any stone coffin.
• n. - A stone shaped like a sarcophagus and placed by a grave as a memorial.