box
UK /bɒks/ · US /bɑks/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms boxes boxen boxing boxed Boxx
- noun A cuboid space; a cuboid container, often with a hinged lid.
- noun A cuboid container and its contents; as much as fills such a container. “a box of books”
- noun A compartment (as a drawer) of an item of furniture used for storage, such as a cupboard, a shelf, etc.
- noun A compartment or receptacle for receiving items. “post box post office box”
- noun A numbered receptacle at a newspaper office for anonymous replies to advertisements; see also box number.
- noun A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre, or other building.
- noun The driver’s seat on a horse-drawn coach.
- noun A small rectangular shelter. “sentry-box”
- verb (transitive) To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes.
- verb (transitive) Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in.
- verb (transitive) To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to ensure that the color is identical.
- verb (transitive, agriculture) To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for the purpose of procuring the sap.
- verb (transitive, architecture) To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form.
- verb (transitive, engineering) To furnish (for example, the axle of a wheel) with a box.
- verb (transitive, graphic design, printing) To enclose (images, text, etc.) in a box.
- verb (transitive, object-oriented programming) To place a value of a primitive type into a casing object.
- noun 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.
- noun The wood from a box tree: boxwood.
- noun (music, slang) A musical instrument, especially one made from boxwood.
- noun (Australia) An evergreen tree of the genus Lophostemon (for example, box scrub, Brisbane box, brush box, pink box, or Queensland box, Lophostemon confertus).
Synonyms
case package boxful loge box seat shelter booth stizzy hole telly tube TV axe wound bearded clam beaver berk bonne bouche bun bush cavern corner boxwood
Antonyms
Etymology
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”).
From Middle English box (“box tree; boxwood”), from Old English box (“box tree”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhs (“box tree; thing made from boxwood”), from Latin buxus (“box tree; thing made from boxwood”), buxum (“box tree; boxwood”), possibly from πύξος (púxos, “box tree; boxwood”).
From Middle English box (“a blow; a stroke with a weapon”); further origin uncertain, with relation to Proto-Germanic *boki-, whence Danish bask (“a blow; a stripe”), Danish baske (“to flap, move around, beat violently”), Middle Dutch boke (“a blow, a hit”), bōken (“to slap, strike”) (modern Dutch beuken (“to slap”)), West Frisian bûkje, bûtse, bûtsje (“to slap”), West Frisian and Saterland Frisian batsje (“to slap”), Low German betschen (“to slap, beat with a flat hand”), Middle High German buc (“a blow, a stroke”), bochen (“to slap, strike”), and further onomatopoeic shaping.
The verb is from Middle English boxen (“to beat or whip (an animal)”), which is derived from the noun.
From Latin bōx, from Ancient Greek βῶξ (bôx, “box (marine fish)”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”) + ὤψ (ṓps, “eye, view”), a reference to the large size of the fish's eyes relative to its body.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A tree or shrub, flourishing in different parts of the world.
- noun A receptacle or case of any firm material and of various shapes.
- noun The quantity that a box contain.
- verb To inclose in a box.
Etymology [As. box, L. buxus, fr. Gr. Box a case.]
Etymology [As. box a small case or vessel with a cover; akin to OHG. buhsa box, G. büchse; fr. L. buxus boxwood, anything made of boxwood. See Pyx, and cf. Box a tree, Bushel.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “box”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details