urn. Lidded ovaloid vase on a circular plan used in Classical Antiquity to contain cremated remains. It was a form later revived for purposes of architectural decoration, on balustrade pedestals, set in niches, used as garden-ornaments, employed in funerary monuments (often draped, or with a portrait-medallion of the deceased on its side, especially in Neo-Classical examples), shown in relief on friezes, etc., and sometimes with representations of flames issuing from the lid.

urn / ərn/ • n. 1. a tall, rounded vase with a base, and often a stem, esp. one used for storing the ashes of a cremated person. 2. a large metal container with a tap, in which tea or coffee is made and kept hot, or water for making such drinks is boiled: a tea urn.• v. [tr.] archaic place (something) in an urn.

urn vessel in which to preserve the ashes of the dead XIV; vessel for holding voting-tablets or the like XVI; oviform pot or pitcher XVII (tea urn XVIII). — L. urna :- *urcnā, rel. to urceus pitcher.