coffers
coffers — 名詞
1. the supply of money that a government, company, or organization holds and can dr
金庫；公庫
政府或機構的可動用資金
the supply of money that a government, company, or organization holds and can draw on to spend — for example, the central budget of a country or the funds belonging to a charity.
The new oil deal will pour billions into the national coffers next year.
新的石油協議明年將為國家金庫帶來數十億的進帳。
metaphorical 'pour into [the] coffers' for incoming revenue
Daichi warned the trustees that the museum's coffers were almost empty.
Daichi 警告董事們，博物館的公庫幾乎見底了。
collocation: coffers are/were empty
Donations from the wedding ceremony helped fill the charity's coffers before winter.
婚禮上的捐款在冬天到來前充實了那家慈善機構的金庫。
Years of corruption had drained the city's coffers long before Maeve took office.
在 Maeve 上任之前，多年的貪污就已經把市政府的公庫掏空了。
Without fresh tax revenue, the provincial coffers will run dry by March.
如果沒有新的稅收進帳，省府的公庫到三月就會見底。
文法句型
the coffers of [organization]
fill / drain / empty the coffers
用法筆記
Almost always plural and almost always preceded by a possessive or 'the' — bare 'coffers' without context is unusual. Common verbs are fill, drain, empty, swell, and replenish.
常見錯誤
2. a strong box, often heavy and made of wood or iron with a lock, used in earlier
保險箱
舊時收存錢財的堅固木鐵箱
a strong box, often heavy and made of wood or iron with a lock, used in earlier times to keep coins, jewels, or important papers safe.
Ryan lifted the heavy iron coffer's lid and saw rows of silver coins inside.
Ryan 掀開鐵製保險箱的蓋子，看見裡面排著一排排的舊銀幣。
The old castle still has a heavy oak coffer where the family kept their jewels.
那座老城堡裡還留著一個沉重的橡木保險箱，家族的珠寶以前都收在裡面。
collocation: an oak / iron coffer
The merchant locked the day's earnings inside a small coffer beside his bed each night.
那位商人每天晚上都把當天的收入鎖進床邊的一只小保險箱裡。
Inside the museum, a wooden coffer from the 1500s sat behind thick glass.
在博物館裡，一個十六世紀的木製保險箱靜靜地擺在厚玻璃後方。
文法句型
an iron / wooden / oak coffer
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1 by reference — sense 2 names a single physical object (a heavy chest), while sense 1 is a metaphorical, always-plural mass noun for an organization's money. If you can point at it and lift its lid, it is sense 2.
常見錯誤
3. in architecture, a square or many-sided sunken panel set into the underside of a
藻井
天花板或穹頂上的方形裝飾凹格
in architecture, a square or many-sided sunken panel set into the underside of a ceiling, dome, or arch as a decoration, usually arranged in a repeating grid.
Each coffer in the cathedral ceiling was painted gold and pale blue.
大教堂天花板上的每一個藻井都漆成金色和淡藍色。
Hoa pointed up at the deep coffers of the dome, each carved with small flowers.
Hoa 指著穹頂上那些深凹的藻井，每一格中央都雕著小小的花。
domain-specific: coffers in a dome
The library has a wooden ceiling broken up into rows of square coffers.
那座圖書館的木天花板被一排排方形的藻井分隔開來。
Restorers spent two years cleaning the painted coffers in the Roman vault.
修復人員花了兩年時間清理那座羅馬拱頂上彩繪的藻井。
文法句型
a coffer in the ceiling / vault / dome
用法筆記
This sense is restricted to architecture; outside that field, native speakers will not recognise it. Often paired with 'coffered ceiling' (adjective form) which is more common in everyday architectural description.