English
box
see also: Box
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English box, from Old English box, from Proto-West Germanic *buhsā from Late Latin buxis, Latin pyxis, of uncertain origin; compare Ancient Greek πύξος and Ancient Greek πυξίς.

Cognate with Middle Dutch bosse, busse ("jar; tin; round box") (modern Dutch bos, bus ("container, box; bushing of a wheel")), Old High German buhsa (Middle High German buhse, bühse, modern German Büchse), Swedish hjulbössa.

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

Noun

box

  1. Senses relating to a three-dimensional object or space.
    1. A cuboid space; a cuboid container, often with a hinged lid.
      Synonyms: case, package
      • 1843 December 18, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC ↗, page 55 ↗:
        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 state of mind by shaking hands with him.
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, “The Elopers”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗, page 33 ↗:
        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 was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.
    2. A cuboid container and its contents; as much as fills such a container.
      Synonyms: boxful
      a box of books
      • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC ↗, page 325 ↗:
        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: […]
    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
      1. A numbered receptacle at a newspaper office for anonymous replies to advertisements; see also box number.
    5. A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre or other building.
      Synonyms: loge
    6. The driver’s seat on a horse-drawn coach.
      Synonyms: box seat
    7. A small rectangular shelter.
      Synonyms: shelter, booth
      sentry-box
      • 1762, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume VI, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC ↗, page 95 ↗:
        [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 corporal to confer and hold councils of war upon. / —The ſentry-box was in caſe of rain.
    8. Short for horsebox (“container for transporting horses”).
      • [1877], Anna Sewell, “Earlshall”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC ↗, part II, page 101 ↗:
        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 invited John to take some refreshment.
    9. (automotive) Short for gearbox.
    10. (automotive) Short for stashbox.
      Synonyms: stizzy
    11. (rail) Short for signal box.
    12. (figuratively) A predicament or trap.
      I’m really in a box now.
    13. (slang) A prison cell.
      • RQ
      1. (slang) A cell used for solitary confinement.
        Synonyms: hole
        • 2003, Elayne Rapping, Law and Justice as Seen on TV, page 83:
          He is fearless and contemptuous, apparently able to withstand any discipline—including nights “in the box” […]
        • 2009, Megan McLemore, Barred from Treatment:
          He had been in disciplinary confinement (“the box”)—punishment reserved for serious prison offenses—for 14 months.
        • 2020, Erin Hatton, Coerced: Work Under Threat of Punishment, page 89:
          […] he explained, “you can go to the box. So, I got a ticket for refusing an order and I went to the box in that situation. […]
    14. (euphemistic) A coffin.
    15. (slang, preceded by the) The television.
      Synonyms: telly, tube, TV
    16. (slang, vulgar) The vagina.
      Synonyms: Thesaurus:vagina
    17. (computing, slang) A computer, or the case in which it is housed.
      Synonyms: computer, machine, Thesaurus:computer
      a UNIX box
    18. (slang) A gym dedicated to the CrossFit exercise program.
    19. (cricket) A hard protector for the genitals worn inside the underpants by a batsman or close fielder.
      Synonyms: cup
    20. (cricket) Synonym of gully
    21. (engineering) A cylindrical casing around the axle of a wheel, a bearing, a gland, etc.
    22. (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.
    23. (dated) A small country house.
      • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, III.vi.9:
        “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, William Cowper, “Retirement”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC ↗, page 282 ↗:
        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 there, / Breathes clouds of duſt and calls it country air.
    24. (colloquial, chiefly, southern US) A stringed instrument with a soundbox, especially a guitar. [from 20th c.]
  2. Senses relating to a two-dimensional object or space
    1. A rectangle: an oblong or a square.
      Place a tick in the box.
      This text would stand out better if we put it in a coloured box.
    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.
    7. (aviation) A diamond-shaped flying formation consisting of four aircraft.
  3. (geometry, by extension) A rectangular object in any number of dimensions.
    Synonyms: hyperrectangle, orthotope
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

box (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 casing object.
Conjugation
Conjugation of box

infinitive (to) box
present tense past tense
1st-person singular box boxed
2nd-person singular
3rd-person singular

 boxes

plural

 box

subjunctive

 box

boxed
imperative

 box

—
participles

 boxing

 boxed

Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English box, from Old English box, from Proto-West Germanic *buhs, from Latin buxus, buxum ("box tree; boxwood"), possibly from πύξος ("box tree; boxwood").

Noun

box (plural boxes)

  1. 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.
    • 1847 October 15, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter V, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC ↗, pages 130–131 ↗:
      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, mingled with southernwood, sweet-briar, and various fragrant herbs.
  2. The wood from a box tree: boxwood.
  3. (musical instrument, slang) A musical instrument, especially one made from boxwood.
  4. (Australia) An evergreen tree of the genus Lophostemon (for example, box scrub, Brisbane box, brush box, pink box, or Queensland box, Lophostemon confertus).
  5. (Australia) 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.
Translations Etymology 3

From Middle English box; further origin uncertain, with relation to Proto-Germanic *boki-, whence Danish bask, Danish baske, Middle Dutch boke, bōken ("to slap, strike") (modern Dutch beuken), Western Frisian bûkje, bûtse, bûtsje, Western Frisian - and Saterland Frisian batsje, Low German betschen, Middle High German buc, bochen ("to slap, strike"), and further onomatopoeic shaping.

The verb is from Middle English boxen, which is derived from the noun.

Noun

box (plural boxes)

  1. A blow with the fist.
    • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene ii], page 166 ↗:
      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 another.
    • 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Bold Dragoon, or The Adventure of My Grandfather”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 1 (Strange Stories. […]), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC ↗, page 62 ↗:
      And then he whispered something to the girl which made her laugh, and give him a good-humoured box on the ear.
    • 1837 May, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “Oliver Continues Refractory”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], published 1838, →OCLC ↗, page 110 ↗:
      "Now, you are a nice young fellow, ain't you?" said Sowerberry, giving Oliver a shake and a box on the ear.
Synonyms Translations Verb

box (boxes, present participle boxing; simple past and past participle boxed)

  1. (transitive) To strike with the fists; to punch.
    to box someone’s ears
    Leave this place before I box you!
    • 1847 October 15, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IV, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC ↗, pages 42–43 ↗:
      Mrs. Reed soon rallied her spirits: she shook me most soundly, she boxed both my ears, and then left me without a word.
  2. (transitive, boxing) To fight against (a person) in a boxing match.
  3. (intransitive, stative, boxing) To participate in boxing; to be a boxer.
Translations Translations Translations Etymology 4

From Latin bōx, from Ancient Greek βῶξ, from βοῦς ("ox") + ὤψ ("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.
Box
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. A village in Minchinhampton, south of (OS grid ref SO8600).
  3. A village/and/cpar near Corsham (OS grid ref ST8268).


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