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Definition box

Etymology 1

From Middle English box (“jar (usually cylindrical); type of container; strongbox for valuables or its contents; cupping glass for bloodletting; bone socket”), from Old English box (“box-tree; box, case”), from Proto-Germanic *buhsuz (“box tree; thing made from boxwood; box”), either from Latin buxus (“box tree; thing made from boxwood”), buxum (“box tree; boxwood”) (possibly from ????? (púxos, “box tree; boxwood”)); or from Late Latin buxis (“box”), Latin pyxis (“small box for medicines or toiletries”) (from Ancient Greek ????? (puxís, “box or tablet made of boxwood; box; cylinder”), from ????? (púxos) + -?? (-is, “suffix forming feminine nouns”)).

If the latter derivation is correct, the word is 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 hjulbössa (“wheel-box”).

The humorous plural form boxen is from box + -en, by analogy with oxen.

Noun

box (plural boxes or boxen) (computing, humorous: see the usage notes below)

1. Senses relating to a three-dimensional object or space.
   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.
   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.
      1. A numbered receptacle at a newspaper office for anonymous replies to advertisements.
   5. A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre, or other building.
   6. The driver's seat on a horse-drawn coach.
   7. A small rectangular shelter; a booth.
   8. Short for horsebox (“container for transporting horses”).
   9. (figuratively) A predicament or trap.
   10. (slang) A prison cell.
   11. (euphemistic) A coffin.
   12. (slang) Preceded by the: television.
   13. (slang, vulgar) The vagina.
   14. (computing, slang) A computer, or the case in which it is housed.
   15. (cricket) A hard protector for the genitals worn inside the underpants by a batsman or close fielder.
   16. (engineering) A cylindrical casing around the axle of a wheel, a bearing, a gland, etc.
   17. (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.
   18. (dated) A small country house.
2. Senses relating to a two-dimensional object or space
   1. A rectangle: an oblong or a square.
   2. (baseball) The rectangle in which the batter stands.
   3. (genetics) One of two specific regions in a promoter.
   4. (juggling) A pattern usually performed with three balls where the movements of the balls make a boxlike shape.
   5. (lacrosse, informal) Short for box lacrosse (“indoor form of lacrosse”).
   6. (soccer) The penalty area.

Verb

box (third-person singular simple present boxes, present participle boxing, simple past and past participle boxed)

1. (transitive) To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes.
2. (transitive) Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in.
3. (transitive) To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to ensure that the color is identical.
4. (transitive, agriculture) To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for the purpose of procuring the sap.
5. (transitive, architecture) To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form.
6. (transitive, engineering) To furnish (for example, the axle of a wheel) with a box.
7. (transitive, graphic design, printing) To enclose (images, text, etc.) in a box.
8. (transitive, object-oriented programming) To place a value of a primitive type into a corresponding object.

Etymology 2

From Latin b?x, from Ancient Greek ??? (bôx, “box (marine fish)”), from ???? (boûs, “ox”) + ?? (?ps, “eye, view”), a reference to the large size of the fish's eyes relative to its body.

Noun

box (plural boxes)

1. (dated) A Mediterranean food fish of the genus Boops, which is a variety of sea bream; a bogue or oxeye.

Results 205 Words with the letters BOX

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