box
Meanings
- Senses relating to a three-dimensional object or space.
- A cuboid space; a cuboid container, often with a hinged lid.
- A cuboid container and its contents; as much as fills such a container.
- A compartment (as a drawer) of an item of furniture used for storage, such as a cupboard, a shelf, etc.
- A compartment or receptacle for receiving items.
- A numbered receptacle at a newspaper office for anonymous replies to advertisements; see also box number.
- A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre, or other building.
- The driver’s seat on a horse-drawn coach.
- A small rectangular shelter.
- Ellipsis of horsebox (“container for transporting horses”).
- Ellipsis of gearbox.
- Ellipsis of stashbox.
- To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes.
- Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in.
- To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to ensure that the color is identical.
- To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for the purpose of procuring the sap.
- To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form.
- To furnish (for example, the axle of a wheel) with a box.
- To enclose (images, text, etc.) in a box.
- To place a value of a primitive type into a casing object.
- To enter the pit.
- Any of various evergreen shrubs or trees of genus Buxus, especially common box, European box, or boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) which is often used for making hedges and topiary.
- The wood from a box tree: boxwood.
- A musical instrument, especially one made from boxwood.
- An evergreen tree of the genus Lophostemon (for example, box scrub, Brisbane box, brush box, pink box, or Queensland box, Lophostemon confertus).
- Various species of Eucalyptus trees are popularly called various kinds of boxes, on the basis of the nature of their wood, bark, or appearance for example, drooping box (Eucalyptus bicolor), shiny-leaved box (Eucalyptus tereticornis), black box, or ironbark box trees.
- A blow with the fist.
- To strike with the fists; to punch.
- To fight against (a person) in a boxing match.
- To participate in boxing; to be a boxer.
- A Mediterranean food fish of the genus Boops, which is a variety of sea bream; a bogue or oxeye.
- A surname.
- A village in Minchinhampton parish, south of Stroud, Gloucestershire, England (OS grid ref SO8600).
- A village and civil parish near Corsham, Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref ST8268).
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Ancient Greek πῠ́ξος (pŭ́xos) Ancient Greek -ις (-is) Ancient Greek πυξίς (puxís)bor. Late Latin buxisbor. Proto-West Germanic *buhsā Old English box Middle English box English box From Middle English box (“container, box, cup”), from Old English box (“box, case”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhsā (“box”) from Late Latin buxis (“box”), Latin pyxis (“small box for medicines or toiletries”), of uncertain origin; compare Ancient Greek πυξίς (puxís, “box or tablet made of boxwood; box; cylinder”) and πύξος (púxos, “box tree; boxwood”). Doublet of piseog, pyx, and pyxis. Cognate with Middle Dutch bosse, busse (“jar; tin; round box”) (modern Dutch bos (“wood, forest”), bus (“container, box; bushing of a wheel”)), Old High German buhsa (Middle High German buhse, bühse, modern German Büchse (“box; can”)), Swedish bössa (“box”). The humorous plural form boxen is from box + -en, by analogy with oxen. (motor racing): Used since it is more distinct over the radio compared to pit. Also from German Boxenstopp (“pit stop”).