Added Jan 24, 2006
BOX
1. A genus (Buxus) of small evergreen trees or shrubs of the family Euphorbiaceas; specially
B. sempervirens, the Common or Evergreen Box-tree, a native of Europe and Asia; a shrub with deep-green leaves of a thick leathery texture. It is much used in ornamental gardening, esp. in a dwarfed variety (dwarf or ground box) for the edgings of flower-beds.
2. The wood of the box-tree, BOX-WOOD; much used by turners and wood-engravers.
3. Comb, and attrib.
a. attrib. Of box or box-wood; pale as box.
b. Comb., as box-bordered, box-like adj.; box-berry, the fruit (and plant) of the winter-green of America (Gaultheria procumbens)', box-edged
a., having a border of box plants; so box-edge (cf. quot. 1884 under 3a); box-elder, -alder, a North American tree, the Ash-leaved Maple (Acer negundo); box-gum Austral., one of various species of Eucalyptus (cf. c below). box-holly, a name of Butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus); box-slip, a slip of box inlaid in the beechwood of some carpenters' planes in order to give durability to the edge; box-thorn, .common name for shrubs of the genus Lycium, esp. L. barbarum.
BOX
1. A case or receptacle usually having a lid;
a. orig. applied to a small receptacle of any material for drugs, ointments, or valuables;
b. gradually extended (since 1 700) to include cases of larger size, made to hold merchandise and personal property; but (unless otherwise specified) understood to be four-sided and of wood.
d. Austral, and N.Z. A mixing up of different flocks of sheep
a state of confusion, and to be in a box, to be in a confused state of mind, in a quandary.
2. With various substantives indicating its purpose, position, etc., as bonnet-, cartridge-, coal-, collecting-, dirt-, hat-, letter-, light-, match-, missionary-, money-, pepper-, pill-, pillar-,poor-, sand-, savings-, snuff-, tar-, touch-box; also DICE-BOX, and with a more specific signification, fire-, smoke-, steam-box, etc.
3. In various contextual applications:
fa. The pyx or receptacle for the consecrated host;
f b. A surgeon's box, used as a cupping-glass (cf. BOIST);
c. A ballot-box;
d. A dice-box;
e. A letter-box;
f. The receptacle for infants at the gate of a foundling hospital.
g. A receptacle or pigeon-hole at a post office in which letters to a subscriber are placed; hence, a similar receptacle or the like at a newspaper office in which replies to an advertiser are placed, orig
For flower-painting never use what is technically termed 'box', viz.: the muddy colour..that is left on the sides of the colour-box from former usage
box-men (safe-blowers)
j. colloq. A gramophone, wireless set, or television set; spec,
the box: television; a television set. Cf. magic box.
The box, a coffin
4. a. esp. A money-box, containing either private or public funds, often with a defining wordb. transf. The money contained in such a box; a fund for a particular purpose
6. A box under the driver's seat on a coach; hence in general the seat on which the driver sits.
7. A box and its contents; hence a variable measure of quantity.
II. A compartment or place partitioned off for the separate accommodation of people or animals.
8. a. A seated compartment in a theatre, at first specially for ladies; often qualified, as, front-, private-, side-, stage-, upper-, etc. In pi. collectively for a distinct part of the auditorium.
b. transf. The occupants of the boxes; esp. the ladies.
9. A compartment partitioned off in the public room of a coffee-house or tavern
10. a. Short for JURY-BOX, WITNESS-BOX.
b. = CONFESSIONAL
11. a. Applied to an old square pew in a church, to a prison-cell, and the hinder compartment in a boat.
b. U.S. The station occupied by various players in baseball; esp. either of the spaces in which the pitcher or the batter stands.
12. A separate compartment or stall for a horse, etc., in a stable, or a railway truck. Also horse-box, loose box: one in which the animal is free to move about.
III. A box-like shelter; a hut, or small house.
13. a. A place of shelter for one or more men; as a sentry's, signalman's, or watchman's box; a sportsman's hiding-place while shooting.
b. spec, on the Railway. A small structure, generally on raised supports, from which the signals, switches, etc., of a section of a railway are worked.
c. Short for telephone box.
14. A small country-house; a residence for temporary use while following a particular sport, as a hunting-, shooting-, fishing-box
.
IV. Technical usages.
15. A case for the protection of a piece of mechanism from injury, dust, etc.
a. The case in which the needle of a compass is placed. Box and Needle
f b. The case (i.e. inner case) of a watch. Also the barrel
c. The case of a lock; also, the socket on a door-jamb which receives the bolt.
d. A group of aircraft flying in close formation
e. Mil. An enclosed area heavily defended in all directions
f. A light shield worn by cricketers to protect the genitals
16. a. A metal cylinder in the nave of a cart or carriage wheel, which surrounds the axle.
b. The case in which the journal of a shaft, axle, etc., revolves; a journal-box, a bearing
17. The piston of a pump; the case containing the valve; also the upper part of a pump-stock.
18. A cavity made in the trunk of a tree to collect its sap;
19. Printing,
a. One of the cells into which a typecase is divided
b. A space enclosed within borders or rules, esp. one to draw attention to a heading, an announcement, etc
20. Founding.
In sand-moulding, the case containing the sand in which the mould is made; a 'flask'.
V. 21.
a. Phrases, to be in the (formerly a) wrong box: to be in a wrong position, out of the right place, to be in a box (colloq.): to be in a fix, in a 'corner'. So to be in the same box: to be in a similar (unhappy) predicament
b. Austral, and N.Z. colloq. phrases: (one) out of the box: an excellent person or thing; (to be) a box of birds: (to be) fine, excellent
VI. Comb, and attrib. f
22. simple attrib. Belonging to a box or boxes; coming from boxes
23. General comb.:
a. objective, as box-maker, -making, -opener, -scraper, -setter, box-turning adj.
b. attributive,
(a) of a box, as box-lid,
(b) of the nature of, or resembling a box, as box-keelson, -lock, -stall, -stove, -stringer;
(c) pertaining to a box in a theatre, etc., as box-book (hence box-book-keeper), -circle, -lobby, -opener, -seat, -ticket; also box-like adj.
24. Special comb.: box-annealing vbl. n., a process of annealing in which the metal is enclosed in a metal box or pot to prevent oxidation; also attrib.; hence box-anneal v.; box-back a., designating a coat or jacket of which the back has a squared, box-like appearance; box-barrage, an artillery barrage concentrated on a particular 'box' or area; box-barrow, a barrow with upright sides and front; box-beam, an iron beam with a double web; box-bill (see quot); box-board (orig. U.S.), board suitable for making boxes; also attrib.', box-camera,
(a) (see quot. 1842);
(b) a hand camera of the form of a box; box-canon, -canyon U.S., a narrow canyon having a comparatively flat bottom and vertical walls; box-car U.S., a large closed-in railway goods wagon; box-cart U.S., a/cart having a box-shaped body; box-chronometer, a marine chronometer with gimbal arrangements like a ship's compass; box-churn, a churn resembling a box in shape; box-cloth, a thick coarse cloth material, usually of a buff colour, from which riding garments are made; also applied to the colour; box-club, a society for mutual aid in distress, a friendly or provident society; box-coat, a heavy over-coat worn by coachmen on the box. or by those riding outside a coach; box-coil, a heating apparatus consisting of a coil of straight tubes joined at the ends, and occupying a cubical space;
box-coloured
a., coloured by immersion in a box or tray of dye; box-coupling, an iron collar used to connect the ends of two shafts or other pieces of machinery; box-crab, a crab of the genus Calappa, which when at rest resembles a box; box-cutter, a person employed in cutting out the material for boxes; box-day = BOXING-DAY; also one of the days in the vacation appointed in the Court of Session (Scotl.) for the lodgment of papers ordered to be deposited in the Court«.); box-desk, a desk of a box-like shape; box-drain, a drain of quadrangular section; box-feeding, rearing cattle with each animal in a box or separate stall of the stable; box-fish, a name of the trunk-fish, Ostracion; box-fitter, a worker in an iron and steel foundry who attaches fittings and adjusts the parts of the moulding boxes; box-food, food which is given to animals in a box; box-frame,
(a) the enclosed space in a window-frame for sash windows, in which the balance-weights are hung;
(b) a frame or framework shaped like a box; also attrib.; see also quot. 1931; box-girder, an iron girder resembling a box, the four sides being fastened to one another by angle-irons; (see quot. 1865); box-grain, a grain given to leather in which lines are crossed in rectangular fashion; box-groove (see quot.); box gutter, a gutter of rectangular cross-section; box-hand,
(a) (see quot.);
(b) a person engaged in the manufacture or packing of boxes; (c) the compositor who sets up the type for stop-press
news; box-hat colloq., a tall (silk) hat; = BOXER4
1; box-head,
(a) an indented heading in a printed article;
(b) the freshwater squaw-fish, Ptychocheilus oregonensis; box-hook, a hook used to handle, close, or raise boxes; box-house U.S., a square-built house suggestive of a box; box-iron, a smoothing iron with a cavity to contain a heater; also attrib.; box junction, a road junction with a grid of yellow lines painted on the road forbidding the road-user to enter the junction area until his exit is clear; also ellipt.;
box-keeper, (a) the keeper of the dice and box at a gaming table;
(b) an attendant at the boxes in a theatre; so box-keeperess; box-key = box-spanner; box-kite,
(a) a toy kite having the form of a box;
(b) a kite invented by Lawrence Hargrave, of Sydney, Australia, consisting of two light rectangular boxes secured together horizontally, formerly used in meteorological experiments; cf. HARGRAVE;
(c) = box-kite aeroplane, an early form of biplane in which the arrangement of the planes resembled a box-kite; box-letter U.S., a letter placed in a private box at a post office instead of being sent out and delivered to the addressee; box-level, a surveyor's level consisting of a glass-covered box instead of a level and tube; box-loom, a loom with more than one shuttle-box at either end of the lathe; box lunch U.S., a packed lunch; box-man, a man who carries a box; box-master Sc., a treasurer; box-mattress = box-spring; box-meat, meat packed in boxes for transport; box-metal, a metallic alloy of copper and tin, or of zinc, tin, lead, and antimony for bearings;
box-money, (a) money collected in boxes;
(b) a payment to the keeper of the dice-box at each throw; in/?/, simply boxes; box-motion, the machinery for operating the shuttle-boxes of a loom; box number, the number of a 'box' (sense 3g) at a post office or newspaper office; box-nut, a screw nut with a closed end; box-ottoman, an ottoman (OTTOMAN n2 1) with a hinged upholstered lid forming the seat, with a receptacle below; box-oyster local U.S., a fine large oyster, formerly packed in boxes instead of barrels; box-plan, a plan of the boxes or seats in a theatre; box-pleat, a double pleat or fold in cloth; so box-pleatedppl. a., box-pleating vbl. n.; box-rent U.S., the charge for a private post office box; box-room, a room for storing boxes, trunks, etc.; box-seat, the driver's seat on the box of a coach (see sense 6); (in quot. 1838, a seat on the roof of an early type of railway-carriage); box-set, a theatrical scene closed in with walls and ceiling; box-shutter, a shutter that folds back into a box, also called boxing-shutter; box-slater (Zoo/.), a name of the genus Idothea of Isopods; box-sleigh, a sleigh with a box-like body; box-spanner, a spanner with a socket-head at one or both ends which fits over the nut, etc., to be turned; box-spring, one of a set of spiral springs contained in a box-like mattress frame; box-square, a metal-working tool used for marking parallel lines on round shafts; box-stair (see quot.); box-staircase U.S., a closed staircase; box-staple, the staple on a door-post into which the bolt of a lock is shot, when the staple is so shaped that it covers the end of the bolt; box-stone Geol, a rounded piece of brown sandstone containing a fossil; box-strap, a flat bar bent at right angles to confine a square bolt or projection; box-string, a string-board of a staircase in which the ends of the steps are entirely boxed in, also called close string; box-swivel, a swivel designed to prevent a fishing-line from tangling; box-tail, a box-shaped stabilizer of a biplane; box-tappet, a cam for working the shuttle-boxes of a loom; box-tenon, a tenon at an angle; box-timbering, the lining of a shaft with rectangular plank frames (Raymond Mining Gloss.); box-toe, in boots and shoes, a toe with a stiff, strong lining; box-tool(s, an attachment to a lathe consisting of tools secured in a box-shaped holder (Lockwood); box-top, the top of a box; spec, a voucher attached to the packaging of groceries, etc., which offers a free gift or comprises part of a special offer; box-tortoise, -turtle (see quot); box-trap, a trap, shaped like a box, used for capturing animals; box-tricycle, a tricycle with a box in which articles can be carried; box-valve, a short rectangular section of a pipe, containing a valve; box-van, a van with a flat roof; box-wagon,
(a) U.S. — box-car;
(b) an open wagon with a box-shaped body;
box-wallah (Anglo-Ind. see WALLAH)
(a) a native itinerant pedlar in India;
(b) a shopkeeper, retailer, or business-man; box-wrench = box-spanner. Also BOX-BED. 1929 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXX. 483 Normalised sheets command a much higher price in the United States than material which has been *box-annealed
Add: [1.] e. The female genitalia. slang (orig. and chiefly
N. Amer.).
1'I believe Leila's
running hot in the box,' said Sadie. 1963 'J. PRESCOT' Case for
Hearing vi. 96 And when you do take 'em out for an evening
here's no holding 'em. As for putting one in the box, in my
opinion most of'em want it to happen.
box, n2
colloq. outside the box: outside or beyond the realm of orthodox, unimaginative thought or conventional practice; usually in to think outside the box: to think creatively or in an unorthodox manner. Also out-of-the-box: creative, original, unorthodox. Similarly (occas.) inside the box.
With allusion to a puzzle in which the aim is to connect the nine dots of a square grid with four straight lines drawn continuously, without pen leaving paper; the solution is only possible if some of the lines extend beyond the border of the grid.