coffin
n.— «Wangjing’s Wal-Mart has light-emitting diode lighting, or LEDs, that reduces the store’s energy consumption by 15%, motion sensors in low traffic areas and open-air freezers—known in industry parlance as “coffins”—with sliding doors.» —“A Green Test for Wal-Mart China” by Mei Fong Wall Street Journal: China Journal Oct. 21, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
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Coffin case is a common name for open refrigerated or frozen food display cases where product is stacked, rather than displayed on shelves. I have never heard them refered to as “coffins”, but rather as “coffin cases”. They resemble coffins without lids, but are obviously, wider and longer than the typical coffin. Another name is “well cases”. Coffin cases are usually open (the cold air stays low enough in the case to keep product cold or frozen). Upright cases, those with shelves, can also be open, but for the last 20 years have mostly been built with self closing doors. I am surprised that this term has never been published. Perhaps it has only appeared in industry journals.