another nail in someone's coffin
An event that increases the likelihood of or causes further failure.
Following the divorce and the lawsuit, bankruptcy is just another nail in his coffin.
coffin
UK /ˈkɒfɪn/ US /ˈkɔfɪn/
noun 7verb 1name 1
Collocations
3(noun.)
VERB + COFFIN
carry, take
lower
They lowered the coffin slowly into the ground as the family watched in silence.
PREP
in a/the ~
Definitions
noun
1
A closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial.
[…] Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, / Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, / Night and day journeys a coffin.
20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along? I’d always found the royals a cold proposition, Diana excepted, but the sight of that little boy, his head bent, not daring to look up at his mother’s coffin in front of him was, and remains, genuinely heartbreaking.
2
The eighth Lenormand card.
3
A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
Of the paste a coffin I will rear.
Take your mallard and put him into the iuyce of the sayde Onyons, and season him with pepper, and salte, cloues and mace, then put your Mallard into the coffin with the saide iuyce of the onyons.
4
A conical paper bag, used by grocers.
The smoke of this Hearbe, which they receaue at the mouth through certaine coffins, suche as the Grocers do vse to put in their Spices.
5
The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.
verb
1
To place in a coffin.
Indians do not hinder the progress of their dead by embalming or tight coffining.
The chest in which she is coffined washes ashore and is brought to the Lord Cerimon.
noun
1
An exploratory trench used when first digging a mine.
2
A deep ditch.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
noun — box in which a corpse is buried or cremated
Antonyms
Idioms & Phrases
final nail in the coffin
Something that is ultimately responsible for a previously prospective demise or failure.
The Slurpie Shack franchise was already considering filing for bankruptcy after five years of poor profits, but a fire that destroyed the flagship restaurant was the final nail in
last nail in the coffin
Alternative form of final nail in the coffin.
Example Bank
601
[…] Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, / Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, / Night and day journeys a coffin.
Wiktionary02
20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along? I’d always found the royals a cold proposition, Diana excepted, but the sight of that littl
Wiktionary03
Plans to carry the Queen's coffin from Edinburgh to London by rail were scrapped in favour of travel in a Royal Air Force cargo aircraft.
Wiktionary04
Indians do not hinder the progress of their dead by embalming or tight coffining.
Wiktionary05
The chest in which she is coffined washes ashore and is brought to the Lord Cerimon.
Wiktionary06
With heads respectfully bowed, they carried the coffin up the steps and into the small chapel.
Tatoeba · #877485Usage Notes
i Register
In some senses, coffin is marked as archaic, obsolete. Watch for register when choosing this word.
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