n. A permanent canopy erected over a high altar; a baldachin.n. Any vessel designed to contain the consecrated bread or sacred wafers for the eucharist.n. A larger receptacle, often of marble, supported on a high stand raised over the altar or elsewhere, containing the pyx or the wafers themselves.n. A sort of ambry or cupboard in the wall used for the same purpose.n. In conchology, the glossy impression on the inside of the valves of shells where the adductor muscles of the mollusk have been attached; the muscular impression or cicatrix.