box

• A terrible voice in the hall cried, "Bring down Master Scrooge's box, there!" and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw him into a dreadful...
• The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste...

Synonyms: case package

1. A cuboid space; a cuboid container, often with a hinged lid.

2. A cuboid container and its contents; as much as fills such a container.

   • a box of books
   • He brought me also a Box of Sugar, a Box of Flour, a Bag full of Lemons, and two Bottles of Lime-juice, and abundance of other Things: […] - 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange...

   Synonyms: boxful

3. A compartment (as a drawer) of an item of furniture used for storage, such as a cupboard, a shelf, etc.

4. A compartment or receptacle for receiving items.

   • post box post office box
   • She'd picked up the high-tech phone from a post office box in Toronto a month ago. The key to that box had been mailed to a post office box in New York City. The Russians loved their cloak-and-dagger, particularly...

5. A compartment or receptacle for receiving items.

   A numbered receptacle at a newspaper office for anonymous replies to advertisements; see also box number.

   • Add five words for address if replies are to come to a box number address at any of our offices. These replies are forwarded each day as received, in new envelopes at no extra charge. […] When replying to blind ads be...

6. A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre, or other building.

   • There is yet a better manner of arranging the boxes; and for which invention we are indebted to Andrea Sighizzi, the ſcholar of [Francesco] Brizio and Dentone; […] The plan he followed was, that the boxes, according as...
   • One night he proposed a champagne supper, to which, he said he had invited a friend of his. I consented without hesitation, and soon after we proceeded to an eating house and seating ourselves in a private box, ordered...

   Synonyms: loge

7. The driver’s seat on a horse-drawn coach.

   • Next in importance to the Dvornik comes the coachman of a Russian household. He is usually chosen for his fatness and the length of his beard. These seem curious reasons for choosing a coachman in a country where...

   Synonyms: box seat

8. A small rectangular shelter.

   • sentry-box
   • [M]y uncle Toby […] treated himſelf with a handſome ſentry-box, to ſtand at the corner of the bowling-green, betwixt which point and the foot of the glacis, there was left a little kind of eſplanade for him and the...

   Synonyms: shelter booth

9. Ellipsis of horsebox (“container for transporting horses”).

   • He was a fine-looking middle-aged man, and his voice said at once that he expected to be obeyed. He was very friendly and polite to John, and after giving us a slight look, he called a groom to take us to our boxes, and...

10. (automotive) Ellipsis of gearbox.

    • They were capable of climbing most hills in second low but for this exercise we decided to go for the bottom of the box, just to be sure. - 2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 181:

11. (automotive) Ellipsis of stashbox.

    • Thinkin' like Roddy, got a stick in the box (Roddy) Hide in another car, we just blickin' the opps (Bah) - 2023 May 24, “Bounce”, PGF Nuk (lyrics):

    Synonyms: stizzy

12. (rail transport) Ellipsis of signal box.

    • Sparks from the derailed bogie of the train were first noticed by the signalman at Slough West box, who immediately sent to Slough Middle box the "Stop and Examine" signal, followed at once by "Obstruction Danger" when...

13. (figuratively) A predicament or trap.

    • I’m really in a box now.
    • He was going straight for the jugular. "Joe, this didn't make me afraid. I've done rescues before." / "Then you'll have no problem saying yes." / Her eyes narrowed. He was putting her in a box and doing it deliberately....

14. (slang) A prison cell.

15. (slang) A prison cell.

    (slang) A cell used for solitary confinement.

    • I am in what you call 'the box' confined to a 'special' housing unit for punishment because I stabbed some guys who call they self godly and are always beaten up on gays and she males because they hate homosexuals. -...
    • He is fearless and contemptuous, apparently able to withstand any discipline—including nights “in the box” […] - 2003, Elayne Rapping, Law and Justice as Seen on TV, page 83:
    • He had been in disciplinary confinement (“the box”)—punishment reserved for serious prison offenses—for 14 months. - 2009, Megan McLemore, Barred from Treatment:

    Synonyms: hole

16. (euphemistic) A coffin.

    • Prior to the explosion we spoke about what would happen if he [Lance-Corporal James Simpson] died and came back in a box and what music he would want at his funeral. - 2010 March 6, Pauline Rogers (interviewee),...

17. (slang, preceded by the) The television.

    • Mr. Wormwood switched on the television. The screen lit up. The programme blared. Mr Wormwood glared at Matilda. She hadn't moved. She had somehow trained herself by now to block her ears to the ghastly sound of the...

    Synonyms: telly tube TV

18. (slang, vulgar) The vagina.

    • Without warning, he withdrew his finger and drove his tongue inside her creamy, hot box. She gave a sharp intake of breath. - 2015 March, Allison Hobbs, Karen E. Quinones Miller, “Cheryl”, in Hittin’ It Out the Park: A...

    Synonyms: axe wound bearded clam beaver berk bonne bouche box bun bush cavern clunge coin slot cooch coochie cookie cooter cooze crack crevice cunny cunt fanny fish lips foo-foo front bottom

19. (computing, slang) A computer, or the case in which it is housed.

    • a UNIX box
    • i can't seem to find any how-to regarding connecting a terminal to a linux boxen via parallel port … - 1996 January 15, Siu Ha Vivian Chu, “DEC vt320 → linux boxen”, in comp.os.linux.networking (Usenet), message-ID...
    • Furthermore, it is necessary that all four Linux boxen have the same development environment […] - 2002 September 8, Gregory Seidman, “serving debian to redhat boxen”, in muc.lists.debian.user (Usenet), message-ID...

    Synonyms: computer machine 'puter box calculator data processing machine electronic brain electronic computer number cruncher thinking machine

20. (slang) A gym dedicated to the CrossFit exercise program.

    • Joshua Newman, until last month a co-owner of CrossFit NYC, which says it is the world's largest box, recalled a member in the gym's early days who was nicknamed "Welcoming Committee." - 2014 August 8, Courtney Rubin,...
    • Ter Kuile says people will sometimes bring their kids to their CrossFit "box," which is CrossFit for "gym." - 2017 June 24, Julie Beck, “How CrossFit Acts Like a Religion”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on...
    • Even CrossFitters disagree on how to read the clowns; some box owners join outsider critics in condemning them as dangerous and distance themselves from boxes that still display them. - 2018 June 21, Mark Hay, “Some...

21. (cricket) A hard protector for the genitals worn inside the underpants by a batsman or close fielder.

    • His [Rory Bremner's] brilliant story about having his box turned inside out by a delivery from Jeff Thomson – he contrasts it with Andrew Flintoff being hit in the box by Cardigan Connor. [David] Lloyd came up to...

    Synonyms: cup

22. (cricket) Synonym of gully (“a certain fielding position”).

    Synonyms: gully

23. (engineering) A cylindrical casing around the axle of a wheel, a bearing, a gland, etc.

    • In common axles, the wheel is prevented from coming off by a pin, called the linch pin, passing through the end of the axletree arm, the name of the part that the wheel turns upon; but as many serious accidents have...

24. (fencing) A device used in electric fencing to detect whether a weapon has struck an opponent, which connects to a fencer's weapon by a spool and body wire. It uses lights and sound to notify a hit, with different coloured lights for on target and off target hits.

    • In electric fencing, foil and saber fencers wear lames, which are thin outer jackets that cover their target areas. Lames are made from fabric that conducts electricity. When a fencer touches an opponent's lame with his...

25. (dated) A small country house.

    • “I dare say the sheriff, or the mayor and corporation, or some of those sort of people, would give him money enough, for the use of it, to run him up a mighty pretty neat little box somewhere near Richmond.” - 1782,...
    • Suburban villas, highway-ſide retreats, / That dread th' encroachment of our growing ſtreets, / Tight boxes, neatly ſaſh'd, and in a blaze / With all a July ſun's collected rays, / Delight the citizen, who gaſping...
    • What can a man know of a country or its people, who, merely passes through the former in a stage coach? […] Such were the arguments by which I induced myself to undertake a pedestrian trip to join my friend at his...

26. (colloquial, chiefly Southern US) A stringed instrument with a soundbox, especially a guitar.

    • So Tea Cake took the guitar and played himself. He was glad of the chance because he hadn't had his hand on a box since he put his in the pawn shop to get some money to hire a car for Janie soon after he met her. -...

27. (colloquial, chiefly UK, Ireland) Short for squeeze box (“accordion or concertina”)

• Place a tick in the box.
• This text would stand out better if we put it in a coloured box.
• [G]raphic novelists must think "inside the box" in some significant ways. Like comic books, each page of a graphic novel usually displays from one to nine outlined boxes with pictures and words that tell a story....

1. A rectangle: an oblong or a square.

2. (baseball) The rectangle in which the batter stands.

   • As anyone who has ever maintained a baseball or softball diamond would agree, the pitcher's mound and batter's box present a special challenge. […] Batters dig in at the plate, disturbing the soil and making a hole that...

3. (genetics) One of two specific regions in a promoter.

   • Similar considerations apply in the case of tRNA genes, where the internal promoter is split into two functional domains (box A and box B) which must be a minimum distance apart[…]. The first 11 bp of the internal...

4. (juggling) A pattern usually performed with three balls where the movements of the balls make a boxlike shape.

   • Your hands rest on the bottom plane of the box, relaxed and open; forearms are parallel with the ground and elbows close to your body. Balls thrown from your right hand are aimed at the point to the left of center of...

5. (lacrosse, informal) Ellipsis of box lacrosse (“indoor form of lacrosse”).

   • [page 12] Field players wear shoes with short spikes, called cleats, on the soles. Box players wear court shoes, which have grooved rubber soles. […] [page 30] Field goalies have larger nets to protect than goalies in...

6. (soccer) The penalty area.

   • Poised link-up play between [Michael] Essien and [Frank] Lampard set the Ghanaian midfielder free soon after but his left-footed shot from outside the box was too weak. - 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 – 0...

7. (aviation) A diamond-shaped flying formation consisting of four aircraft.

8. (motor racing) An area in the pit where the car is repaired and refueled.

   • “Okay Lewis, so box this lap, box, box” - 2020 February 7, Greg Stuart, “A beginner’s guide to… F1 slang”, in F1:
   • When a driver is told to 'box, box', they're being instructed to make a pitstop. This is because 'box' sounds more distinct than 'pit' over the team radio, so there's less chance of confusion leading to an error. The...

Synonyms: hyperrectangle orthotope

• And no maruell. For, the leaues of Boxe be deletorious, poiſonous, deadlie, and to the bodie of man very noiſome, dangerous and peſtilent[…] - 1587, Leuinus Lemnius, translated by Thomas Newton, An Herball to the Bible...
• He strayed down a walk edged with box; with apple trees, pear trees, and cherry trees on one side, and a border on the other, full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweet-williams, primroses, pansies,...
• "Box makes a statement without having to do much: just trim twice a year and keep it weeded. It's a bit of a lazy gardener's plant." This, no doubt, is what makes box so popular with show home developers and city...

• Nevertheless, the application of woods other than box for purposes for which that wood is now used would tend to lessen the demand for box, and thus might have an effect in lowering its price. - 1885 April 10, John R....

• Evenin’, folks. Thought y’all might lak uh lil music this evenin’ so Ah brought long mah box. - 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 11, in Their Eyes were Watching God: A Novel, Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition,...

• The name "Black Box" seems to be most generally in use for this species, Eucalyptus boormani; the even better name of "Ironbark Box" (which certainly indicates its affinities) is nearly as frequently in use. - 1909, J....

• That he hath a neighbourly charitie in him, for he borrowed a boxe of the eare of the Engliſhman, and ſwore he would pay him againe when hee was able : I thinke the Frenchman became his ſuretie, and ſeald vnder for...
• And then he whispered something to the girl which made her laugh, and give him a good-humoured box on the ear. - 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Bold Dragoon, or The Adventure of My...
• "Now, you are a nice young fellow, ain't you?" said Sowerberry, giving Oliver a shake and a box on the ear. - 1837 May, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “Oliver Continues Refractory”, in Oliver Twist; […], volume I,...

• BOX. Box (Boops), […] In both jaws a single anterior series of broad incisors, notched at the cutting margin; no molars. - 1859, Albert Günther, “Fam. 7. SPARIDÆ”, in Catalogue of Acanthopterygian Fishes in the...
• The Bogue. […] Box or Boops. Generic Character.—Body elongated, rounded, the dorsal and ventral profiles alike, and the general aspect peculiarly trim. - 1860, William Yarrell, “The Bogue”, in John Richardson, editor,...
• BOGUE. BOX. OXEYE. […] In some parts of the European side of the Mediterranean the Bogue is a common fish, and where it frequents it is in great abundance. - 1862, Jonathan Couch, A History of the Fishes of the British...

• Scrapbooks that have enduring value in their original form should be individually boxed in custom-fitted boxes. - 1991 August, Karen Motylewski, “Surveying Your Own Institution: What Do You Need to Know?”, in What an...
• "I best get busy and box up these bones," she said, suddenly anxious to get moving. […] As she started to step around the grave washed out by last night's rainstorm, the sun caught on something caught in the mud. -...

• A large majority of children seem to delight in emotionally boxing in their parents—setting the double-bind trap by giving the parent two choices but determining ahead of time that neither choice will be sufficient for...

• Straining eliminates lumps in the paint. If the paint has separated, stir the thick paint up from the bottom of each can to free as many lumps as possible. Then box the paint, pouring it all together through a nylon...

• The early settlers either boxed the tree or cut large slanting gashes, from the lower end of which a rudely fashioned spout conducted the sap to a bucket. This method was very destructive to the tree, and boring was...

• As early as the 1850s, prisons were being made "safer" by boxing in water pipes and enclosing galleries with netting to prevent jumping. - 2013, Ronald V[ictor] Clarke, David Lester, “Introduction to the Transaction...

• [T]he death of the said deceased Daniel Docherty, while in the defender's employment as an engineman, […] is alleged to have been owing to the engine house, which contained the engine of which the deceased had charge,...

• “Okay Lewis, so box this lap, box, box” - 2020 February 7, Greg Stuart, “A beginner’s guide to… F1 slang”, in F1:

• to box someone’s ears
• Leave this place before I box you!
• Mrs. Reed soon rallied her spirits: she shook me most soundly, she boxed both my ears, and then left me without a word. - 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IV, in Jane Eyre. An...