hearsecloth

English

Etymology

From hearse +‎ cloth.

Noun

hearsecloth (plural hearsecloths)

1. A cloth for covering a coffin when on a bier; a pall.
   • 1857, John Eadie, John Francis Waller, William John Macquorn Rankine, The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography:

     His body was stripped, laid out upon a table, and covered with a hearsecloth, when some of his attendants perceived symptoms of returning animation, and by the use of warm applications, internal and external, gradually restored him to life.