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box

Pronunciation: /bɒks/

The English word “box” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  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.
  5. A numbered receptacle at a newspaper office for anonymous replies to advertisements; see also box number.
  6. A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre, or other building.
  7. The driver’s seat on a horse-drawn coach.
  8. A small rectangular shelter.
  9. A predicament or trap.
  10. A prison cell.
  11. A cell used for solitary confinement.
  12. A coffin.
  13. The television.
  14. The vagina.
  15. A computer, or the case in which it is housed.
  16. A gym dedicated to the CrossFit exercise program.
  17. A hard protector for the genitals worn inside the underpants by a batsman or close fielder.
  18. Synonym of gully (“a certain fielding position”).
  19. A cylindrical casing around the axle of a wheel, a bearing, a gland, etc.
  20. 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.

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.