| 释义 |
▪ I. box, n.1 Bot.|bɒks|
Also 4–7 boxe.
[OE. box, ad. L. bux-us box-tree, Gr. πύξος.]
1. A genus (Buxus) of small evergreen trees or shrubs of the family Euphorbiaceæ; 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 box or ground box) for the edgings of flower-beds.
931Chart. æðelstan in Cod. Dipl. V. 195 Of ðere ᵹemear⁓codan æfsan to ðon readan slo..of ðam treowe to ðere wican æt ðam boxe. a1000ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 139 Buxus, box. 1382Wyclif Isa. lx. 13 The fyrr tree, and box, and pyne tree togidere. c1420Anturs of Arth. vi, Vndur a lefe tale Of box and of barbere byggyt. 1551Turner Herbal G vj a, The wood of boxe is yelowe and pale. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xxxii. 699 The smal Boxe is called of some in Latine, Humi Buxus: that is to say, Ground Boxe, or Dwarffe Boxe. 1713Guardian No. 173 (1756) II. 360 There ships of myrtle sail in seas of box. 1830Tennyson A Spirit haunts, Fading edges of box beneath. 1836Penny Cycl. VI. 75/2 The Majorca box..is a handsomer plant..with broader leaves, and a more rapid growth.
2. The wood of the box-tree, box-wood; much used by turners and wood-engravers. Also fig.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 867 Pale as box sche was. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xix, Also of boxe beþ boxes made to kepe in muske and oþer spicerye. 1553Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 16 Rhinoceros..of the coloure of boxe. 1635J. Babington Pyrotechn. 1 You must get of the best drie Box you can finde. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 347 Made on Box or Brass of most Mathematical Instrument Makers. 1852McCulloch Dict. Comm. 189 Box is a very valuable wood. It is of a yellowish colour, close-grained, very hard, and heavy.
3. Comb. and attrib.
a. attrib. Of box or box-wood; pale as box.
1382Wyclif Isa xxx. 8 Wryt to it vp on a box table. 1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 43 Their box complexions..Their iaundice looks. 1677Lond. Gaz. No. 1245/4 One Box Comb. One Pocket Handkerchief. 1693W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 276 Boxteeth, teeth as yellow as box. 1714Fr. Bk. of Rates 359 The Trade of Ivory-Combs, and also Horn-Combs, and Box-Combs. 1884Cassell's Fam. Mag. Feb. 141/2 Anything..in the way of box edging.
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 3 a); 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. Also box-tree, box-wood.
1851S. Judd Margaret ii. i. 162 The path was strewn with old claret *boxberries.
1884Harper's Mag. Oct. 661/2 A *box-bordered plat.
1932Auden Orators ii. 63 Between *box-edges, past the weathering urns.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Box-edged. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited 71 The box-edged walks of the kitchen gardens.
1866Treas. Bot. 781/1 The *Box Elder..is sometimes introduced into English shrubberies.
1887D. Macdonald Gum Boughs 7 The clumps of *box-gums clinging together for sympathy.
1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 79 They [Rhinoceroses] have..a *Boxe-like colour.
1678W. Salmon Pharm. Lond. i. iv. 74 Lycium, Pyxacantha, Buxea spina..*Boxthorn. 1846J. W. Loudon Ladies' Comp. Flower-Gard. 130 Lycium, Solanaceæ, Boxthorn.
c. Applied with distinguishing epithet to several other plants, as bastard box, Polygala chamæbuxus; flowering box, Vaccinium Vitis-Idæa, having leaves like those of the box; grey box, Eucalyptus dealbata of S. Australia; † prickly box, the box-thorn (Lycium), also the butcher's broom, Ruscus aculeatus (Lyte); Queensland box, Lophostemon macrophyllus; red box (of New South Wales), L. australis; spurious box, Eucalyptus leucoxylon, of S. Australia; Tasmanian box, Bursaria spinosa. Applied to many Australasian species of Eucalyptus (see quots.), Tristania conferta (bastard, brisbane, brush, red, or white box), and some other trees: see Morris Austral English.
1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xiii. 674 Butchers broome..is called..in base Almaigne, Stekende palme, that is to say, Prickley Boxe. Ibid. xxxiii. 699 Prickley Boxe is a tree not much vnlyke to the other Boxe. 1820J. Oxley Jrnl. Two Exped. into N.S. Wales 15 The timber, dwarf box, and gum trees (all eucalypti), with a few cypresses and camarinas. Ibid. 227 The country..thickly timbered, chiefly with the species of eucalyptus called box. 1866Lindley & Moore Treas. Bot., Box..White, of Australia, Eucalyptus albens. Yellow, of Australia, Eucalyptus melliodora. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Native Pl. Australia 121 Native box..is greedily eaten by sheep,..usually a small scrub, in congenial localities it develops into a small tree. Ibid. 468 Eucalyptus hemiphloia... This is a common ‘Box’ of New South Wales and Queensland. 1964R. Holt in R. Ward Penguin Bk. Austral. Ballads 198 Gidgee, myall, box and jarrah.
▪ II. box, n.2|bɒks|
Also Sc. boxse, boxe.
[OE. box neut. or masc.: it is not clear whether this was (1) another sense of box, the name of the tree, (2) an independent adoption of L. buxum boxwood, in the sense of a thing made of box, or (3) an altered form of L. pyx-is (puxis, med.L. buxis) box: see pyx. In favour of the latter cf. OHG. buhsa fem. (MHG. buhse, bühse, Ger. büchse, MDu. busse, bosse, Du. bus, bos) on OTeut. type *buksja-, ad. L. pyxis or Gr. πύξις box. As the latter was f. πύξος box-wood, the L. form of which was buxus, late and med.L. had many forms with initial b, as buxis, buxida, buxta, boxta, bosta, bossida (cf. boist), from some of which the Teutonic forms might well be derived.]
I.
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 1700) 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.
a1000ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 124 Pixis, bixen box. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvi. 7 Ða ᵹenealæte him to sum wif, seo hæfde box [Vulg. alabastrum] mit deorwyrðe sealfe. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 145 Hie nam ane box ȝemaked of marbelstone and hine fulde mid derewurðe smerieles. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xiv. 54 As þe messager..bereþ bote a boxe a breuet þer-ynne. c1440Promp. Parv. 46 Box or boyste, pixis. 1480Cath. Angl. 39 A Box, pixis. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 286 b, The swete oyntement..was closed and shutte in the boxe. 1580Baret Alv. B 1083 Boxes or chestes where grocers put there spices and wares. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. v. i. 45 And about his [the apothecary's] shelues A beggerly account of emptie boxes..thinly scattered, to make vp a shew. 1611Bible 2 Kings ix. 1 Take this boxe of oile in thine hand. ― Transl. Pref. 1 Certaine bare themselves as auerse from them as from.. boxes of poison. 1677Lond. Gaz. No. 1263/4 Three Silver Boxes, one for Sugar, one for Pepper, and one for Mustard. 1751Johnson Rambl. No. 171 ⁋7 My landlady..took the opportunity of my absence to search my boxes. 1862Burton Bk.-hunter i. 15 His spoil, packed in innumerable great boxes. 1875Ure Dict. Arts II. 471 Sand and loam (packed tightly into metal boxes, called flasks).
c. fig.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 29 Why thou damnable box of enuy thou. a1618Raleigh Rem. (1664) 89 It is an essentiall property of a man truly wise, not to open all the boxes of his bosome. 1653Walton Angler 220, I have several boxes in my memory in which I will keep them all very safe.
d. Austral. and N.Z. A mixing up of different flocks of sheep; also transf.; also with up. Cf. sense 21 and box v.1 5 b.
1872C. H. Eden My Wife & I in Queensland iii. 67 Great care must of course be taken that no two flocks come into collision, for a ‘box’, as it is technically called, causes an infinity of trouble. 1941Baker N.Z. Slang v. 39 A box-up, 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-box, cartridge-box, coal-box, collecting-box, dirt-box, hat-box, letter-box, light-box, match-box, missionary-box, money-box, pepper-box, pill-box, pillar-box, poor-box, sand-box, savings-box, snuff-box, tar-box, touch-box; also dice-box, and with a more specific signification, fire-box, smoke-box, steam-box, etc.
1638Shirley Mart. Soldier iv. iii. in Bullen Old. Pl. (1882) I. 236 The Sand of a Scriveners Sand-boxe. 1709Steele Tatler No. 79 ⁋1, I made her resign her Snuff-Box for ever. 1722Lond. Gaz. No. 6068/8 One Pepper-box, two Salts. c1730Swift Directions Housemaid, Leave a pail of dirty water, a coal-box, a bottle, a broom. 1808R. Porter Trav. Sk. Russ. & Swed. (1813) I. i. 11 A broad belt, to which hangs an unwieldly cartridge-box. 1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 1079 Water-Meter, A dirt box is attached to each end of the meters. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 217 Cigar boxes, jewel boxes, handkerchief boxes, glove boxes, match boxes.
3. In various contextual applications:
†a. The pyx or receptacle for the consecrated host;
†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.
1297R. Glouc. 456 Þe box ek, þat hong ouer the weued, myd Godes fless & blod. 1533Elyot Cast. Helth (1541) 61 Application of boxes about the stomake, in hot feuers, are to be eschewed. 1549Thomas Hist. Italic (1561) 79 Boxes, into whiche, if he wyll, he may let fall his ballot. 1556Chron. Gr. Friars (1852) 55 Spekyng agayne the sacrament of the auter..callyd it Jacke of the boxe. 1562W. Bullein Sicke Men, &c. 52 b, Aplie boxis with skariffaction. 1604Breton Pass. Sheph. iii. in Spenser's Wks. (Grosart) III. Introd. 29 Or to see the subtle fox, How the villain plies the box. 1680Cotton in Singer Hist. Cards 332, I have seen a losing gamester greedily gnawing the innocent box. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Box, Our sharpers have opportunities of playing divers tricks with the box, as palming, topping, slabbing. a1853A. Opie Bank Note, It is..necessary that a person whom I can trust should put the letter in the box. 1873Morley Rousseau I. 118 The new-born child was dropped into oblivion in the box of the asylum for foundlings.
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. U.S. Cf. box-letter, box number, box-rent (sense 24).
1832[see box-letter]. 1833B. F. Hallett Trial E. K. Avery 43 E. K. Avery had a private box at my office. 1897E. W. Brodhead Bound in Shallows 242 The following evening Dillon found in his post-office box a letter of one line. 1919Wodehouse My Man Jeeves 119 My address will be Box 341, London Morning News. 1971Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Apr. 487/2 The Times Canadian Service Division, Box 490, King City, Ontario.
h. (See quot.)
1889Atalanta June 597/1 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.
i. = safe n. 1 b. slang (orig. U.S.).
1904‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing xiii. 261 We got a country jug on our first touch, but the box wasn't heavy enough for five. 1904H. Hapgood Autobiogr. of Thief vi. 120 He was one of the most successful box-men (safe-blowers) in the city. 1926J. Black You can't Win viii. 89 We've got the combination of that box, kid. Ibid. ix. 104 Shorty was one of the patricians of the prison, a ‘box man’ doing time for bank burglary.
j. colloq. A gramophone, wireless set, or television set; spec. the box: television; a television set. Cf. magic box.
1924T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 436, I..play Beethoven & Mozart to myself on the box. 1930Kipling Limits & Renewals (1932) 208 It was one of his prerogatives to announce what the Man in the Box [i.e. wireless announcer] said about the sick Padishah. 1950G. Marx Let. 6 Dec. (1967) 168, I have solved the television problem by having a remote control installed on the ugly box. 1958Observer 18 May 14/2 ‘Contradiction is the very moving principle of the world!’ The Box, with its abrupt switches from the trivial to the profound, is always providing illustrations to Hegel's pet dictum. 1963E. Humphreys Task i. xi. 120, I saw one of your plays, Dicky. On the old box.
k. A coffin. slang.
Cf. quot. 1674 s.v. black a. 1 a.
1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 34 The box, a coffin. 1957‘W. Henry’ Jesse James 66 Personally, I'll believe he's dead when the box is shut and covered up.
4. a. esp. A money-box, containing either private or public funds, often with a defining word added.
c1386Chaucer Cook's T. 26 Ffor often tyme he foond his box [v.r. boxe] ful bare. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. i. 97 And boxes ben [broght] forþ [I-] bounden with yre. 1552–3Inv. Ch. Goods Stafford 87 The poore mans box. a1555Lyndesay Tragedy 70, I purcheist—for my proffect singulare, My Boxsis and my Threasure tyll auance,—The Byschopreik of Merapose, in France. 1580Baret Alv. B 1079 A boxe for almes or the poore mens boxe. 1607Shakes. Timon iii. i. 16 Nothing but an empty box, Sir, which..I come to intreat your Honor to supply. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. iv, He..was to have a halfpenny on Sunday to put into the poor's box.
b. transf. The money contained in such a box; a fund for a particular purpose. Cf. box-club.
1389in Eng. Gilds (1870) 5 He schal haue of þe comune box xiiijd. Ibid. 7 Alle þe costages that be mad aboute hym be mad good of the box. 1439E.E. Wills (1882) 113, I bequeth to the..Comune Box..vjs. viijd. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. vii. (1651) 356 With ordinary gamesters, the gains go to the box. 1775Johnson Lett. cxii. (1788) I. 234 The ladies..pay each twopence a week to the box. 1830Galt Lawrie T. i. ii. (1849) 5 She applied in her auld days for a recommendation to get her put upon the box.
5. Short for Christmas-box, q.v.
a1593H. Smith Serm. (1866) II. 240 The law is like a butlers-box, play still on till all come to the candestick. 1611Cotgr., Such a box as our prentices beg before Christmas. 1621W. Mason Handf. Ess. C ij, As an apprentices box of earth, apt he is to take all, but to restore none till hee be broken. 1629Taylor Wit & Mirth in Brand Pop. Ant. (1870) I. 270 Westminster Hall..is like a Butler's Box at Christmas amongst gamesters: for whosoeuer loseth, the Box will bee sure to bee a winner. 1668Pepys Diary 28 Dec., Called up by drums & trumpets; these things & boxes having cost me much money this Christmas. 1712Steele Spect. No. 509 ⁋3 The beadles & officers have the impudence at Christmas to ask for their box.
6. A box under the driver's seat on a coach; hence in general the seat on which the driver sits.
1625Knappe's Patent No. 31 A devise whereby the coachman without comyng from his boxe shall..keepe the hinder wheeles from turninge. 1669Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 42 Our coachmen so drunk, that they both fell off their boxes on the heath. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Box, Coach-box, a place under the coachman's seat, wherein he puts what may be wanted for the service of the coach or horses. 1812Jane Austen Mansf. Park (1870) I. viii. 67 The barouche would hold four perfectly well..independent of the box. 1884Queen Victoria More Leaves 116 Brown as always, unless I mention to the contrary, on the box.
7. A box and its contents; hence a variable measure of quantity.
c1305Judas 131 in E.E.P. (1862) 110 If þe boxes hadde ibeon isolde..Þe teoþing þerof was þrettie pans. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 194 Haued nouȝt Magdeleigne more for a boxe of salue Þan zacheus. 1706Phillips, Box is also taken for an uncertain quantity of some Commodities; as of Prunelloes, 14 Pounds; of Quick-silver, from one to two Hundred Weight; of Rings for Keys, two Gross, etc. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5438/4 Two Quarter Boxes of Lace and Edgings. 1852McCulloch Dict. Comm. 667 Exportation of Sugar from Havannah in 1849: 614,366 boxes at 400 lbs. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 36 He who is to be a workman should have his box of tools when he is a child. 1886Illust. Lond. News 3 July 2/3 A ‘box of whistles’, otherwise an organ.
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-box, private-box, side-box, stage-box, upper-box, etc. In pl. collectively for a distinct part of the auditorium.
(As box, when this sense arose, had not acquired the sense of a large wooden chest, but was chiefly an apothecary's pill box or ointment pot, or perhaps a ‘jewel-box’, its transference to the theatrical use was more remarkable than it seems to us with our notions of large ‘boxes’ for goods. Could it be at first humorous or jocular, with some reference to ‘casket’, ‘jewel box’, or ‘box of ointment very precious’?)
1609Dekker Gull's Horn-bk., I mean not into the lords roome, which is now but the stages suburbs. No, these boxes..are contemptibly thrust into the reare. 1632Massinger City Mad. ii. ii, (Anne) The private box ta'en up at a new play For me and my retinue. 1667Pepys Diary (1877) V. 60 We were forced to go into one of the upper boxes at 4s. a piece. 1755Johnson Dict., Box, the seats in the playhouse where the ladies are placed. 1779Sheridan Critic i. i. 443 Applications from all quarters for my interest..from ladies to get boxes. a1845Hood United Fam. xvi, Nine crowded in a private box. 1881Daily News 12 Sept. 2/3 The auditorium, the boxes, upper circle, and gallery.
b. transf. The occupants of the boxes; esp. the ladies.
a1700Dryden (J.) The boxes and the pit Are sovereign judges of this sort of wit. a1704T. Brown Persius i. Prol. Wks. 1730 I. 51 Nor [I] from the tender boxes e'er Yet have drawn one pitying tear. 1711Addison Spect. No. 40 Let him behave himself..abjectly towards the fair one, and it is ten to one but he proves a favourite of the boxes.
9. A compartment partitioned off in the public room of a coffee-house or tavern.
1712Steele Spect. No. 266 ⁋4, I went to an Inn in the City..I waited in one of the boxes. 1782Cowper Let. to Hill 7 Dec., I see you in your box at the coffee-house. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. I. ix. 290 An ancient coffee-room, divided into boxes in the snug old fashion.
10. a. Short for jury-box, witness-box.
1822Lamb Elia, Roast Pig, Without leaving the box..they brought in a simultaneous Verdict of Not Guilty. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxiv, Mr. Winkle entered the witness-box. Mr. Phunky ought to have got him out of the box with all possible dispatch. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 385 The jury appeared in their box. 1880Daily Tel. 4 Nov., By his country, represented by twelve men in a box, he will be tried.
b. = confessional n. 2 a.
1922Joyce Ulysses 726, I wonder did he know me in the box.
11. a. Applied to an old square pew in a church, to a prison-cell, and the hinder compartment in a boat.
1709Let. to Ld. M[ayor] 4 Some who sat in the Stalls and Boxes at St. Paul's titter'd. 1834Ainsworth Rookwood iii. v. (1878) 200 In a box of the stone jug I was born. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Box, the space between the backboard and stern-post of a boat, where the coxswain sits.
b. U.S. The station occupied by various players in baseball; esp. either of the spaces in which the pitcher or the batter stands.
1881Detroit Free Press 26 Sept. 1/5 Weidman..will have to go into the box for the remaining four games. 1909Collier's 15 May 14/1 The pitcher was now contained in a box six feet square. 1944Runyon R. à la Carte (1946) vi. 95 Putting the zing on Bill Terry for not taking Walker out of the box when Walker is getting a pasting from the other club.
c. Cricket. = gully n.1 2 d.
1913Daily Mail 7 July 9/2 Splendid catch anywhere near the wicket, especially in ‘the box’. 1926Ibid. 29 June 10/2 Hobbs was caught in that nondescript position which is variously known as ‘the box’ and ‘the gully’.
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.
1846W. Andrew Ind. Railw. (ed. 2) 14 The horses came out of the horse boxes..as fresh as when they went into them. 1886Sat. Rev. 6 Mar. 327/2 To get cast in a loose box half as big as a barn. Ibid. 328/1 [A racehorse]..found huddled up in the corner of his box, shaking from head to foot.
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.
1714Gay Trivia ii. 176 The Centry's Box. 1835Hood Dead Robbery iii, The Watchman in his box was dosing. 1884T. Speedy Sport x. 176 Grouse are not slow to discover any movement in the ‘box’.
c. Short for telephone box.
1935G. Greene England Made Me i. 16, I rang up..from a box in the Circus. 1961‘T. Hinde’ For Good of Company i. 16 Tony seized the phone and held it out of the box towards him.
14. A small country-house; a residence for temporary use while following a particular sport, as a hunting-box, shooting-box, fishing-box.
1714T. Ellwood Autobiog. 233, I took a pretty Box for him..a mile from me. 1756Gentl. Mag. XXVI. 445 And purchases his country box. 1756J. Warton Ess. Pope (1782) iii. I. 108 His father retired from business..to a little convenient box, at Binfield. 1825Cobbett Rur. Rides 200 Rawlinson, who..has a box and some land here. 1873Tristram Moab xi. 213 Some of these he may have employed to erect here a hunting-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 (see quot.).[When the cardboard with the points was not attached to the needle, but was fixed to the box, the box would have to be turned each time the ship changed its direction (see quot. 1613); hence may have arisen the expressions in Box v.1 12.] 1613M. Ridley Magn. Bodies 105 If the ship turne anything about, the boxe of the compasse must also be turned. 1696Phillips, Box and Needle, an Instrument used in surveying of Land, and finding out the situation of any side, by pointing one end of its needle towards the North. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Box and Needle, in Navigation, is the same with the compass. 1755Johnson, Box..the case of the mariner's compass.
†b. The case (i.e. inner case) of a watch. Also the barrel. Obs.
1675Lond. Gaz. No. 1008/4 Lost..a plain round Watch..the Box and Out-case of Gold. 1678Ibid. No. 1305/4 A round Watch.. in a silver Box engraven, a plain silver out Case. 1740Cheyne Regimen 320 Like a Spring in the Box of a Watch. 1751in Chambers Cycl.
c. The case of a lock; also, the socket on a door-jamb which receives the bolt.
1679Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 376 These Locks they make either with brass or iron boxes so curiously polish't. 1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 139 A bolt shoots from the box or lock..and catches in some kind of staple or box fixed to receive it.
d. A group of aircraft flying in close formation. Also attrib.
1941Battle of Britain Aug.–Oct. 1940 13 Enemy bomber formations were also protected by a box of fighters. 1946G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead ix. 121 They looped and rolled in perfect box formation. 1951O. Berthoud tr. Clostermann's Big Show i. 45 The Luftwaffe would not in fact have time to concentrate on the first box.
e. Mil. An enclosed area heavily defended in all directions.
1942Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 10 June–1 Sept. 125 The best defended ‘box’ will not hold out very long against greatly superior armoured strength. 1944Return to Attack (Army Board, N.Z.) 9/1 ‘Baggush by the sea’ was the fortress ‘box’ on the Mediterranean shore originally constructed in 1940 by the first contingent to leave New Zealand.
f. A light shield worn by cricketers to protect the genitals.
1950N. Cardus Second Innings iv. 90 Not every player in those days used a ‘box’. 1964I. Fleming You only live Twice xi. 139 ‘What is a box?’ ‘It is what our cricketers wear to protect those parts when they go out to bat. It is a light padded shield of aluminium.’
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. (Cf. bush n.2)
1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4935/4 Cast Iron Boxes, for the Wheels of all manner of Carriages. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Box of a wheel, the aperture wherein the axis turns. 1811Wellington in Gurw. Disp. VIII. 351 You will let him have..brass boxes from wheels. 1885W. C. Unwin Elem. Machine Design 229 Axle-boxes are peculiarly formed journal-bearings.
17. The piston of a pump; the case containing the valve; also the upper part of a pump-stock.
1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 12 The Pumpe..the pumpes chaine, the spindle, the boxe, the clap. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) G iv, The pump-spear..draws up the box, or piston, charged with the water. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., Each ordinary pump has an upper and lower box; in the centre of each box is a valve opening upwards.
18. A cavity made in the trunk of a tree to collect its sap; cf. box v.1 7.
1720Dudley Maple Sugar in Phil. Trans. XXXI. 27 The Box you make may hold about a Pint. 1856Olmsted Slave States 339 If we enter, in the winter..a ‘turpentine orchard’, we come upon negroes engaged in making boxes, in which the sap is to be collected the following spring..These ‘boxes’..are cavities dug in the trunk of the tree.
19. Printing.
a. One of the cells into which a typecase is divided.
1696Phillips s.v. Case, The Printers call a Case a division of little Boxes where they put the Letters of the Alphabet. 1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 643 The upper case, having ninety-eight boxes, contains the capital and small capital letters (etc.)..in the lower case, having fifty-four boxes, are disposed the small letters (etc.).
b. A space enclosed within borders or rules, esp. one to draw attention to a heading, an announcement, etc. Cf. box v.1 3 d.
1929F. A. Pottle Stretchers 317 Its scare heads and leaded sub-heads, its boxes and rules. 1933P. Macdonald Myst. Dead Police v. 36 In the centre of the page, inset in a black-edged ‘box’ and different type, was a condensed biography of the arrested man. 1957Steinbeck Pippin IV 58 Louella Parsons had a front-page box headed: Will Clotilde come to Hollywood?
20. Founding. In sand-moulding, the case containing the sand in which the mould is made; a ‘flask’.
1875Ure Dict. Arts II. 476 Boxes constitute an essential and very expensive part of the furniture of a foundry.
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.
[The original allusion appears to be lost; was it to the boxes of an apothecary? Cf. [Cæsar Borgia] appoincted poysoned coumfettes for a Cardinall that dined with his father, but the father hym selfe was serued of the wronge boxe and died. W. Thomas Hist. Italie 1549.]
a1555Ridley Wks. 163 (D.) If you will hear how St. Augustine expoundeth that place, you shall perceive that you are in a wrong box. 1607T. Walkington Opt. Glass 17 Socrates said, laugh not, Zophyrus is not in a wrong box. a1659Cleveland Coachman 12 Sir, faith you were in the wrong Box. 1679Hist. Jetzer 13 The Father Confessor saw himself in a wrong box. 1685H. More Para. Proph. 252 You should find your self in a wrong Box. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy x. 31 Take care your rights of man don't get you in the wrong box. 1865H. Sedley M. Rooke 143 If I weren't in something like the same box as his'n. 1884Rider Haggard Dawn xlvii, Well, we are in the same box. 1911H. Walpole Mr. Perrin v. 92 He always told himself that all the members of the staff were in the same box.
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.
1931F. D. Davison Man-Shy (1934) v. 74 She's one out of the box, all right. 1943F. Sargeson in Penguin New Writing XVII. 73 ‘Hello Terry,’ he said, ‘how's things?’ ‘A box of birds,’ Terry said. 1947D. M. Davin For Rest of Lives xxx. 146 Everyone is a box of birds, still celebrating being alive. 1949H. Wadman Life Sentence 11 Well, anything very good of its kind is ‘one out of the box’.
VI. Comb. and attrib.
22. simple attrib. Belonging to a box or boxes; coming from boxes.
1883Harper's Mag. Nov. 880/1 The coigne of vantage in the box tier. 1885Daily News 14 July 2/2 New laid eggs..cannot be competed against by the foreign or ‘box’ eggs.
23. General comb.:
a. objective, as box-maker, box-making, box-opener, box-scraper, box-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, box-lock, box-stall, box-stove, box-stringer; (c) pertaining to a box in a theatre, etc., as box-book (hence box-book-keeper), box-circle, box-lobby, box-opener, box-seat, box-ticket; also box-like adj.
1783London Chron. 22 Nov. 501/2 A box lobby Puppy comes in at half price, and immediately goes to the *box-book to see who's there. 1812Dramatic Censor 1811 294 For the benefit of Mr. Spring, Box book-keeper. 1849Theatrical Programme 4 June No. 1, p. 12 Mr. Massingham the obliging and gentlemanly box-book keeper of the Princess's Theatre, takes his benefit on Friday next.
1812Examiner 9 Nov. 713/2 The *box-circle at the Theatres.
1827Gentl. Mag. XCVII. ii. 501 Whatever has been on the *box-lid..is unfortunately wholly defaced.
1836Dubourg Violin ix. (1878) 277 An ugly, bluff, *box-like pattern [of violin]. 1858W. Ellis Vis. Madagasc. iii. 54 The little box-like room.
1783*Box lobby [see box-book above]. 1842Box-lobby [see lobby n. 2 a].
1730Savery in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 326 A common Door Key of an Iron *Box-Lock.
1645E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (ed. 4) 133 The Author of this Sect was one Iohn Hetherington, a *Boxe-maker.
1878Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. vii. 55 Carried the *boxstove into the broad aisle of the meeting-house.
1869E. J. Reed Ship-build. ix. 168 *Box-stringers are formed on the beam ends.
1768Pennsylvania Gaz. in G. O. Seilhamer Hist. Amer. Theatre (1888) I. xxii. 247/1 After the tea equipage was removed, one of the gentlemen produced some *box tickets for the play. 1866M. Mackintosh Stage Reminisc. 175 For the evening performance there were so many ‘box’ tickets taken that we had to remove the barrier and enlarge our reserved seat accommodation.
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-cañon, -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 (cf. box v.1 4, boxing vbl. n.); 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 pl. simply boxes; box-motion, the machinery for operating the shuttle-boxes of a loom; box number, the number of a ‘box’ (sense 3 g) at a post office or newspaper office; box-nut, a screw nut with a closed end; box-ottoman, an ottoman (ottoman n.2 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-pleated ppl. 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 (Zool.), 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.
1929Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXX. 483 Normalised sheets command a much higher price in the United States than material which has been *box-annealed.
1928Ibid. CXVIII. 356 The American Rolling Mill Co...has built a series of twelve *box-annealing furnaces. 1930Engineering 2 May 583/1 (heading) Normalising and box-annealing of sheets.
1946R. Blesh Shining Trumpets (1949) viii. 196 In their tight ‘*box-back’ coats, the players blasted away.
1918in F. A. Pottle Stretchers (1929) 116 Germans put over a *box barrage entirely around the wood, hemming our boys in. 1941Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 19 Mar.–13 May 16 Our airmen..had to make their way through an intense box barrage. 1941Illustr. London News CXCVIII. 207 (caption) British artillery, responsible for the most severe ‘box barrage’ of the campaign, pounding away at Tobruk just before our troops entered.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. i. xi. 69 Yoked in long strings to *box barrow or over-loaded tumbril.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Box-bill, a tool used in deep boring for slipping over and recovering broken rods.
1841Amer. Almanac for 1842 116/2 Paper Sheathing, binders, wrapping, and *box boards. 1910R. W. Sindall Paper Technology (ed. 2) 240 Box boards, used for box-making of all kinds, and manufactured from mechanical wood pulp, old waste papers, hemp, &c. 1932F. L. Wright Autobiogr. (1945) iv. 273 The box-board cabins..are to be connected by a low staggered box-board wall.
1842Francis Dict. Arts s.v. Camera Obscura, The *box camera is constructed as follows: procure a box, about 14 inches long E, having another box sliding in it F; the inner box having but one end, and in the centre of that end a double convex lens. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 690/1 Single-magazine Box Camera.
1873J. G. Bourke Jrnl. 21 Mar. (D.A.E.), We descended into a *box cañon and made camp. 1947Canadian Alpine Jrnl. June 91 We were unable to follow this route (with a pack⁓horse) beyond a box canyon.
1856Mich. State Agric. Soc. Trans. 1855 VII. 334 There are on the road..11 four-wheeled *box cars. 1898Engineering Mag. XVI. 69 The Illinois Central equipment was of the standard box-car type.
1890Harper's Mag. Mar. 569/2 Jim..returned with the *box-cart and horse.
1875Bedford Sailor's Pock. Bk. v. (ed. 2) 190 In winding up *box-chronometers, the chronometer should be inverted carefully in its gimbals.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 341 For a *box-churn, whether horizontal or vertical, the plunger should make about 60 revolutions per minute. 1853Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIV. i. 70 In the box-churn the whey often escapes through the spindle-hole.
[1748Lady Sherard Let. 17 Oct. in M. M. Verney Verney Lett. (1930) II. xxxiii. 244 He had two *box clothes and no harness.] 1890Peel City Guardian 29 Mar. 3/5 We saw it in emerald green velvet to stone box cloth. 1898H. Graves et al. Cycling 20 We are not aware of the existence of all-wool box-cloth.
1766Entick London IV. 239 Scots-hall, a corporation for the relief of the poor..people of Scotland..founded by James Kinnier..who obtained..letters patent to incorporate a *box-club of his countrymen for this purpose. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 464 Box clubs..have much extended since the law passed for making them corporate.
1822W. Irving Braceb. Hall (1845) 60 The travellers' room is garnished..with *box-coats, whips of all kinds. 1861Emerson Cond. Life 90 Dress makes a little restraint..But the box-coat is like wine: it unlocks the tongue.
a1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Box Coil, a steam or hot-water coil of many members, occupying a cubical space comparable in its proportions to a box.
1903L. A. Flemming Pract. Tanning 80 Sumac-tanned skins..are usually *box-colored, that is, dyed in trays or dye boxes.
1901Daily Chron. 10 Sept. 10/7 *Box cutter..wanted, for box factory at Watford.
1864Burton Scot Abr. I. v. 302 The handsel..has fallen into disuse, having been superseded by that great institution the *Box-day.
1905Daily Chron. 21 Nov. 5/6 Two ‘paltry pieces’ of silk and a *box-desk were among the gifts.
1848Gard. Chron. 769 Three methods of feeding cattle are..Hemel-feeding, Stall-feeding, and *Box-feeding.
1839–47Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. III. 969/1 The..*box-fishes..have their entire body..enclosed in a dense case of armour.
1920Glasgow Herald 18 Sept. 8 An agreement under which fitters, pattern-filers, and *box-fitters in the Glasgow area are to receive an advance of 5s. 6d. per week.
1886C. Scott Sheep-farming 129 If it be intended to use *box food, the sheep require to be trained to eat from the boxes when hoggs.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Box-frame, a casing behind the window-jamb for counterbalance-weights. 1931Roget Dict. Electr. Terms (ed. 2) 34/2 Box-frame motor, an ironclad motor without a split frame, as in some traction motors. 1948Archit. Rev. CIV. 187 Concrete box-frame construction.
1865Brande & Cox Dict. Sci., etc., *Box Girder, a form of girder resembling a box, made out of boiler plate, fastened together by means of angle irons, which are riveted respectively to the top and bottom plates. 1874Thearle Naval Archit. 73 The complex and varied systems of box-girder keels and keelsons.
1914H. R. Procter Making of Leather 133 If the drawing down is repeated across the skin, a square or ‘*box’ grain is formed.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Box-groove, a closed groove between two rolls, formed by a collar on one roll, fitting between collars on another roll.
1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 503/1 Parallel or *box-gutters are necessary next parapets where a curb roof is formed. 1954Highway Engin. Terms (B.S.I.) 23 Box gutter, a drainage channel or gutter of rectangular cross section.
1796Sporting Mag. IX. 126/2 The profits of this trade were immense. There was what they called the *box-hands, that is, if a person threw three times together successfully, he gave one silver piece to the use of the house. 1833Fraser's Mag. VIII. 194 The avowed profits of keeping a table of this kind is the receipt of a piece for each box-hand,—that is, when a player wins three times successively, he pays a certain sum to the table; and there is an aperture in the table made to receive these contributions. 1921Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §449 Box hand, box man,..fills monorail bogies with masse cuite. Ibid. §522 Box hand, fudge box hand, a compositor who sets up type, for ‘latest news’ or ‘stop press’, which is put into a box and inserted in stereo cylinder. Ibid. §554 Box hand, box maker,..turns up, to form box side, pieces of cardboard already cut to shape and creased.
1886F. T. Elworthy Dial. W. Somerset 86 He had on a *box-hat too! 1919J. C. Snaith Love Lane xvi. 73 Broadcloth trousers allied to a prehistoric box-hat.
1909Jacobus et al. Standard Bible Dict. p. xxii, The larger articles [in the Standard Bible Dictionary] will be found to be divided into sections by *box-heads... This is done to facilitate easy cross-reference.
a1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Box Hook. 1. A hook used in handling boxes; somewhat like a cotton-hook, which see. 2. A hook made on the plan of a cant-hook; used in closing boxes packed full of fish. 3. Hooks used in pairs in swinging boxes from a lifting-tackle.
1881Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) 83 Some *box-houses constructed for the purpose.
1746Miles in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 56 *Box-Irons for smoothing Linen-Clothes. 1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6195/6 John Brown..Box-Iron-maker.
1966Guardian 30 Dec. 14/5 So successful have London's yellow *box junctions been in easing the traffic flow, that the Greater London Council is proposing 33 more... The Ministry of Transport first introduced the boxes with their warning ‘Do not enter the box until your exit is clear’ three years ago.
1680Cotton in Singer Hist. Cards 335 If you be not careful and vigilant, the *box-keeper shall score you up double or treble boxes. 1693W. de Britaine Hum. Prudence 141 Playing at Dice..the Box-keeper is commonly the greatest Winner. 1728Vanbrugh & Cib. Prov. Husb. v. iii. 112 She hears the Boxkeepers, at an Opera, call out—The Countess of Basset's Servants!
1855–7Thackeray Misc. II. 346 (D.) The *box-keeperess popped in her head, and asked if we would take any refreshment.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Box-key, an upright key, used for turning the nuts of large bolts, or where the common spanner cannot be applied.
1898Science Siftings 17 Dec. 137/1 A few of the principal shops are now offering *box kites. 1908Westm. Gaz. 11 May 4/1 The double box-kite aeroplane with which Mr. Farman won the Archdeacon Prize in Paris recently. 1918H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks Pl. vi, In 1909 came the semi-Wright biplane... Then the first box-kite flown by Mr. Grace at Wolverhampton. Ibid. Pl. xii, The Curtiss bi-planes..the box-kite type, 1909, on which Mr. Curtiss won the Gordon-Bennett Race at Reims. 1928C. F. S. Gamble North Sea Air Station xx. 351 By means of a 5-foot linen box-kite and spare aerial with which I had been experimenting at Yarmouth we were able to get into and keep into [sic] constant wireless communication with Yarmouth.
1832U.S. Postal Regul. 43 *Box-letters.
1909Century Dict. Suppl., *Box-loom.
1954J. L. Morse Unicorn Bk. 1953 179 It went into such details as allowing troops twenty minutes for their *box lunches. 1960G. Sanders Mem. Professional Cad ii. vii. 157 The crowd outside the Chapel of the Psalms had brought box lunches, bawling babies, and hula hoops.
1873Contemp. Rev. XXI. 741 The treasurer of an ordinary Friendly Society, in Scotland, is sometimes its ‘*box-master’. 1885D. Beveridge Culross II. 155 The privilege of having a deacon and box master of their own.
1928Daily Mail 7 Aug. 1/2 (Advt.), You can enjoy all the luxury and comfort of the most expensive *Box Mattress.
1906Daily Chron. 7 June 5/4 The import of ‘*box’ meat.
1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt II. 193 Accommodation for narrative bagmen or *boxmen.
1557Order of Hospitalls F v b, An Yerelybooke for Collections, Legacies and Benevolences, *Boxe Mony. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Box, Betters have the advantage over casters as they have no box-money to pay.
1894T. W. Fox Mech. Weaving 393 The ever-increasing number of different *box motions.
1923D. L. Sayers Whose Body? iv. 67 Here's our advertisement... Perhaps it would have been safer to put a *box number.
1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Box Nut. 1912‘K. Mansfield’ Scrapbk. (1939) 7 *Box-ottomans and beds.
1811C. Mathews Let. 1 July in Mrs. Mathews Mem. C. M. (1838) II. vi. 126, I have an immense *box-plan already; and I expect a good house. 1912A. Bennett Matador of 5 Towns 246 The box-plan could be consulted at the principal stationers. The Alexandra Hall contained no boxes whatever, but ‘box-plan’ was the phrase sacred to the occasion.
1883Daily News 22 Sept. 3/3 The..material, arranged in *box-pleats from the waist. 1883Myras's Jrnl. Aug., Narrow box-pleated blouse paniers finish the corsage. 1882Society 14 Oct. 24/2 The width of a skirt necessary for kilting or box-pleating is always three times as much as for a plain one.
1841Congress. Globe 20 Feb., App. 343/2 [I proposed] to cure the abuse growing out of *box-rents. 1881Congress. Rec. Mar. 2283/1 Postal funds are such funds as arise from box rents and from the sale of postage-stamps.
1927Conan Doyle Case-Bk. S. Holmes ix. 248 My mind is like a crowded *box-room with packets of all sorts stowed away therein.
1838Osborne's Guide to Grand Junction Railway 107, I will suppose you mounted on the *box seat. 1849De Quincey in Blackw. Mag. Oct. 488/2 The public took to bribing, giving fees to horse-keepers, &c., who hired out their persons as warming-pans on the box-seat. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green xii. 116 Mr. Verdant Green tipped for the box-seat.
1889Cent. Dict., *Box-set. 1933P. Godfrey Back-Stage xi. 143 Ceiling-pieces were introduced and box-sets for domestic interiors with real doors and windows.
1869Nicholson Zool. xxxii. (1880) 305 Other well-known Isopods are..the *Box-slaters (Idothea).
1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., *Box Spanner. 1962Which? (Suppl.) Apr. 67/1 The Austin A60 had a grease gun, nave plate remover and box spanner.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 621/1 Wire Mattresses... *Box Spring: has 72 spiral steel japanned springs covered with..tow. 1927Daily Tel. 11 May 17/7 (Advt.), All the beds are fitted with boxsprings and hair overlays of the finest quality.
1902P. Marshall Metal Tools 18 A *box-square is an elongated form of square, the chief use of which is for marking parallel lines on round shafts or spindles.
1901R. Sturgis Dict. Arch., *Box Stair, one made with two closed strings, so that it has a boxlike form of construction. 1907M. H. Norris Veil i. 5 Returning to the hall he opened the door of a box stair-case, ascending unconsciously on tiptoe a broad flight of shallow stairs to an immense attic.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Box-staple (Carpentry), the box or keeper on a door-post, into which is shot the bolt of a lock.
1870E. R. Lankester in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XXVI. 499, I have..spent a good deal of time in working at the nodules, which I propose to call ‘*Box-stones’, since the name of ‘boxes’ has been applied to those which exhibit the remains of a shell on being broken open by the phosphate-diggers of Suffolk. 1893Geikie Geol. (ed. 3) 1009 Rounded pieces of brown sandstone, known as ‘box-stones’, evidently derived from the denudation of a single horizon, and enclosing casts of marine shells.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Box-strap, a flat bar, bent at the middle, to confine a square bolt or similar object.
1847Stoddart Angler's Comp. 138 The *box-swivel is a very necessary part of the minnow-tackle.
1909Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 9/1 His Voisin biplane,..with its *box-tail wagging high in the air.
1894T. W. Fox Mech. Weaving 287 A lateral motion..is given to the short shafts by *box tappets and lever connections.
1909Webster, *Box toe. 1913W. H. Dooley Man. Shoemaking 181 Box Toe, used to hold up the toe of the shoe so as to retain the shape. It is generally of sole leather, but often made of canvas or other material and stiffened with shellac or gum.
1937Amer. Speech XII. 101 Hook is that part of the commercial which urges you to send in the *box tops. 1967I. Hamilton Man with Brown Paper Face ii. 27 He used to send in all the box-tops for the do-it-yourself handcuff kit.
1843Penny Cycl. XXV. 72 Genus Pyxis. This genus is the only Land *Box Tortoise. By means of this sort of moveable door or lid, the Pyxis..can shut itself up in a sort of box.
1770G. Cartwright Diary 26 Sept. (1792) I. 39, I made a *box-trap for martens, and set it on the opposite side of the river. 1785T. B. Hazard Jrnl. 2 Apr. (1930) 78/2 Made door for Box Trap for Biger Babcock Junr. 1936Discovery July 227/2 Shrews..escaped between the wires of box-traps.
1896Daily News 8 Oct. 9/2 The father of the deceased said his son was in the habit of riding a *box tricycle.
1856Emerson Eng. Traits 125 The same men..shut down their valve, as soon as the conversation approaches the English church. After that, you talk with a *box-turtle.
a1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Box Valve, a box section in a pipe containing a valve, and having a cover for access.
1908Westm. Gaz. 30 Mar. 5/2 A light *box-van.
1847H. Bushnell Address Hartford Co. Agric. Soc. 14 To..live on the coarsest fare, to ride in a *box waggon or cart. 1874Congress. Rec. Apr. 3377/2 A small..covered carriage, sufficient to enable a Bureau officer to come to the Capitol..upon a rainy day like this, and not be soaked in a ‘box-wagon’. 1886Encycl. Brit. XX. 247/1 Open or box waggon.
a1847Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor III. xxi. 263 The *box-wallas or sundook-wallas, are native pedlars. 1865Pall Mall G. 3 Aug. 11/1 As to the poor boxwallah, the memsahib is a good deal to blame. 1889Kipling From Sea to Sea (1899) I. i. 7 This Young Man must have been a delight to the Delhi boxwallahs. 1956W. Slim Defeat into Victory 133 It was the ‘Box Wallahs’, the commercial community, who in those hot, anxious months..turned Eastern India into a base and workshop..for Burma.
Add:[1.] e. The female genitalia. slang (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.).
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §121/38 Female pudendum,..hog-eye, hot box, jewelry. 1949A. Marshall How Beautiful are thy Feet 150 ‘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 there's no holding 'em. As for putting one in the box, in my opinion most of 'em want it to happen. 1984M. Amis Money 164 Bum, box, belly, breasts—just incredibly prominent.
▸ = tick box n. at tick n.3 Additions.
1958N. Gross et al. Explor. in Role Anal. 353 Please check the box on the right which best indicates your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the corresponding aspect of your present job. 1983Herald-Amer. (Syracuse, N.Y.) 24 Apr. e5 In the upper left-hand corner..is the heavy black outline of a box. Next to the box are the words ‘X box if refund’. 2004S. Hall Electric Michelangelo 334, I don't care if you never put a single tick in a single box, but you get yourself down that polling station right now.
▸ 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.
1975Aviation Week & Space Technol. 14 July 9 We must step back and see if the solutions to our problems lie outside the box. 1984Fortune 6 Feb. 114/3 He tells his managers to be ‘cross-functional’ and to ‘think outside the box’ of their own specialty. 1993Chicago Tribune 19 June ii. 11/4 Whether you like it or not, you have to give him credit for thinking outside the box. 1996F. Popcorn Clicking ii. 183 The men who are right now immersed in creative, out-of-the-box thinking. 1997Sunday Times 26 Oct. (Financial Appointments Suppl.) 2/2 (advt.) We are looking for someone who still has the flair and dynamism to think outside the box. 2000N.Y. Mag. 3 Apr. 25/1 On the defensive, Skidmore stayed safely inside the box and simply edited the plain postwar buildings from the site.
▸ box jelly n. Zool. = box jellyfish n. at Additions.
1958S. Austral. Naturalist 32 iv. 58 One group of jellyfish of special interest to Australians are the Cubomedusae, which are often referred to as ‘sea wasps’ in the tropics. The writer believes however that the term ‘*box-jelly’ or ‘jelly-box’ is a more suitable popular name. 1994Equinox Spring 55 (caption) Australia's box jellies have one of the world's most potent venoms. 2002Sport Fishing Sept.–Oct. 59/1 Treatment may include antivenin for box jelly stings.
▸ box jellyfish n. Zool. any of various tropical jellyfishes constituting the class Cubozoa and order Cubomedusae, which have a four-sided swimming bell with a cluster of dangerously venomous stinging tentacles hanging from each corner; also called box jelly, sea wasp.
1971Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Sept. 26/1 The sea-wasp, or *box-jelly fish, is said to have killed some 70 swimmers this century. 1988Travelling Spring 16/1 Just be sure to swim in the designated areas, and check to be sure it's not box jellyfish season. 1996J. Cawte Healers Arnhem Land viii. 82 The rest of her body and face were draped with grey cords, the detached tentacles of a box jellyfish adhering fast to her dark skin.
▸ box set n. = boxed set n. at boxed adj. Additions
1969Appleton (Wisconsin) Post Crescent 26 Oct. d12 (advt.) *Box set of 8–12 oz. Tumblers. 1971Charleston (W. Va.) Daily Mail (Electronic text) 18 Feb. (advt.) 3-Record box set. 2006Cineaste Summer 6/2 Sturges is remarkably well represented on disc, thanks especially to a new box set..containing..[almost] every one of the Paramount films.
▸ box social n. N. Amer. (now chiefly hist.) a fund-raising social event at which boxed meals are sold or auctioned, customarily to be shared by the purchaser with the person who prepared the meal.
1882Atchison (Kansas) Globe 7 Dec. 1/4 If you want to enjoy yourself this evening, go to the *box social at the Congregational church, buy a lunch box, and eat lunch with the lady whose card you find inside. 1943O. Hammerstein Oklahoma! i. i. 6 Who you takin' to the Box Social tonight? 1996Canad. Geogr. Sept.–Oct. 62/1 Perhaps it was the confining nature of their situation that lent such an intensity to the settlers' social life... There were box socials and shadow plays.
▸ fig.to tick (also check) (all) the (right) boxes and variants: to fulfil the requirements; to have the necessary or expected attributes.
1989Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 3 Feb. Baseball was determined to fill the NL job with a black from inside the game... [He] put checkmarks in all the right boxes. 1993Courier Mail (Brisbane) (Nexis) 26 Nov. The Bank..ticked all the boxes{ddd}but it was obvious no time went into their report. 1994Frank 3 Mar. in S. Collins & A. Martin Frank Pranks (2000) 13/3 Checks all the boxes, domestically, but proud confession to government job a strike against him. 2005Independent 26 Sept. 32/1 We do not do this with a view to ticking the right boxes, but because..we believe it is..the right thing to do.
▪ III. box, n.3|bɒks|
Also 4–5 boxe.
[ME. box: of unknown origin; perh. related to an OTeut. *boki-, whence MDu. bōke, böke, early mod.Du. beuk, MHG. buc blow, stroke, MDu. bōken, MHG. bochen to strike, slap; but in this case the formation remains unexplained. It has also been compared with Da. bask blow, stripe, but no intermed. links have been found. More probably, it is of native English origin; it may be an onomatopœia, or have arisen from some fig. or playful use of box n.2 (Mahn compares Gr. πύξ ‘with clenched fist’, which might have been to the purpose if ‘box’ had begun as school slang.)]
†1. A blow; a buffet. Obs. exc. as in 2.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1388 Hadde in armys manye a blode box [v.r. boxe]. a1400Morte Arth. (Roxb.) 93 With his burlyche brande a box he hyme reches. 1580Baret Alv. B 1076 To giue one a boxe or blowe with the fist. 1647H. More Song of Soul iii. App. lxv, The Shrow him beat with buffes and boxes. 1727Swift Gulliver ii. v. 136 The bird..gave me so many boxes with his wings on both sides of my head and body..that, etc.
2. spec. A blow on the ear or side of the head with the hand; a slap, a cuff.
c1440Promp. Parv. 46 Box or buffett, alapa. 1589(title) Pappe with an Hatchet..Or a Countrie cuffe, that is a sound boxe of the eare for the idiot Martin to hold his peace. 1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. 64 My owne mother gaue I a boxe on the eare too. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. vii. 133 To take him a boxe a'th ere. 1601Sherley's Trav. (1863) 9 Sir Anthonies brother gaue the captaine a sound boxe. 1676D'Urfey Mad. Fickle ii. i. (1677) 11 A Box oth' Ear for a Prologue, you know. 1712Addison Spect. No. 317 ⁋35 Gave Ralph a box on the Ear. 1876Green Short Hist. vii. §3. 363 She [Elizabeth] met the insolence of Essex with a box on the ear.
▪ IV. box, v.1|bɒks|
[f. box n.2, which yields a large number of disconnected uses.]
1. a. trans. To furnish or fit with a box.
1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. (1841) 190 My Lord paid me..for boxyng a peyre wheles. 1844Regul. & Ord. Army 102 For a box trigger-plate, including new trigger, and boxing ditto, and fitting the same fit for service, 1s. 3d.
b. To give a Christmas-box (colloq.); whence boxing-day.
†2. trans. To bleed by cupping; to cup. Obs. Cf. boist v.
1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes, The ij to boxe and lete blode. 1533Elyot Cast. Helth (1541) 60 Of scarifyeng called boxyng or cuppyng. 1543Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. ii. xix. 30 To boxe, or cuppe the place wyth depe scarificatyon.
3. a. To put into a box.
1586Cogan Haven Health cvii. (1636) 108 If it [Marmalade] be stiffe, then take it off and box it, while it is warm. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 424 Straine it, and boxe it after you haue strewed sugar in the boxes. 1741Compl. Fam. Piece i. iii. 239 Lay them drying..then box them. 1860Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 26 Here is the ‘copper underwing’, that seems so unsuspicious that nothing appears easier than to box it. 1884Pall Mall G. 4 July 6/1 Eighty girls are employed in sorting cigars and boxing them.
b. to box up: to ‘put up’ in a box: also fig.
1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 192 The Sentences shall be boxed up in several paragraphs. 1674Flatman To Mr. Austin 16 Thus John Tradeskin starves our greedy eyes, By boxing up his new found Rarities. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 147 Box up the refined potass carefully.
c. to box in or box up: to enclose in a box or casing.
1864Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXV. ii. 354 Provision should be made, when practicable, to fence in or ‘box up’ the moving parts... It would be very easy to box up the gearing of a fixed thrasher... It would also be impossible to completely box-in a chaff-cutter. 1919Autocar Handbk. (ed. 9) 129 In other cars the motor is boxed in nearly air⁓tight by a shield underneath and a closed bonnet above.
d. Printing. To enclose within rules; to print with a border. Also with in.
1904Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 65/1 Box in, a term indicating that rules should be placed round as a border. 1924W. M. Raine Troubled Waters xxii. 229 A leaded advertisement..boxed to draw more attention.
4. To lodge a document in a Law Court.
1868Act 31 & 32 Vict. c. §63 The Court may order such documents as appear necessary to be printed and boxed.
5. a. To confine as in a box, or in uncomfortably narrow limits; often with up, in.
1710Swift Tatler No. 238 ⁋3 Box'd in a Chair the Beau impatient sits. 1824Mrs. Sherwood Waste Not ii. 5 How do you like being boxed up with the old lady? 1865Cameron Malayan Ind. 83 The wall of jungle which boxes in each plantation.
b. To mix up or allow to be mixed up (different flocks of sheep). Also const. up, and absol. Austral. and N.Z.
1864Puketoi Diary 19 Apr. (MS.), Lambs boxed. 1871M. A. Barker Christmas Cake iv. iii. 278 Tom's sheep were always coming to grief..and never a week passed without his getting boxed. That's mixed-up, ma'am. 1881A. C. Grant Bush Life in Queensland I. 253 All the mobs of different aged lambs which had been hitherto kept apart were boxed up together. 1888‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms III. xii. 168 After they'd got out 20 or 30 they'd get boxed, like a new hand counting sheep, and have to begin all over again. a1889in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang s.v., Now, mind yourselves, for if you box, You'll play the mischief with the flocks. 1959H. P. Tritton Time means Tucker 16/2 In the event of two mobs getting ‘boxed’ they would have to be taken to the nearest yard and drafted out.
6. trans. and intr. To fit compactly as in a box; techn. to fit with a scarf joint.
1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxix. 459 Savin has opposite, erect, decurrent leaves, with the oppositions boxed into each other along the branches. c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 152 Its lower end scarphs or boxes into the keel. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 126 The stem is boxed when it is joined to the fore end of the keel by a side scarph.
7. trans. To make an excavation in the trunk of (a tree) for the sap to collect.
1720Dudley Maple Sugar in Phil. Trans. XXXI. 27 You box the Tree. 1755Gentl. Mag. XXV. 551 Turpentine..gathered by boxing the pitch-pine trees. 1865Morning Star 5 Apr., The trees after being ‘boxed’ begin to produce turpentine immediately.
8. To partition off into boxes.
1869Daily News 30 May, The fronts of the galleries have been snugly boxed off.
9. slang. To overturn in his box (e.g. a watchman).
1851Thackeray Eng. Hum. ii. (1858) 59 Were they all..hunting in the country, or boxing the watch? 1852― Esmond ii. v. (1876) 196 The incorrigible young sinner, was abroad boxing the watch, or scouring St. Giles's.
10. Sc. To wainscot, to panel walls with wood. (Jamieson.)
11. To take with, or appeal to, the box audience of a theatre, etc.
1672Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Rehearsal (Arb.) 29 It shall read..and act and plot and shew, ay, and pit, box and gallery, I gad, with any Play in Europe. 1831Macaulay Moore's Byron, The rants of Byron's rhyming plays would have pitted it, boxed it, and galleried it, with those of any Bayes or Bilboa.
12. Naut. to box the compass:
a. (see quot.)
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Boxing, among sailors, is used to denote the rehearsing the several points of the compass in their proper order. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy xviii, I can raise a perpendicular..and box the compass. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., To Box the Compass. Not only to repeat the names of the thirty-two points in order and backwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its division.
b. fig. To go round to the direct opposite; to make a complete turn.
1815Scribbleomania 213 Cobbet..Has box'd every point of the compass to Gammon. 1833Fraser's Mag. VIII. 29 The Mercury..boxed round the political compass, following instinctively its old employer—Interest. 1869Blackmore Lorna D. xliii. (D.) The wind would regularly box the compass..in the course of every day, following where the sun should be.
13. to box off: to turn the head of a vessel by hauling the head-sheets to windward and bracing the headyards aback; to box-haul. to box about: to sail up and down, often changing the direction.
1832Marryat N. Forster xxii, You must box her off. 1836Fraser's Mag. XIV. 571 He often boxed about, in his Highland yacht, for a week together. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxiii. (1856) 185 While thus boxing about on one of our tacks.
▪ V. box, v.2|bɒks|
[f. box n.3 According to Mätzner, Franck, Kluge, etc., the mod.Du. boxen, LG. baksen, baaksen, Ger. baxen, boxen, Da. baxe, Sw. baxas, boxas, are all from English.]
1. trans. orig. To beat, thrash; later, to strike with the fist, to cuff, to buffet: now usually, to strike (the cheek, ear, etc.) with the hand.
1519W. Horman Vulg. 137 §17 He was boxed out of the place: as he had been a started hare. 1589R. Harvey Pl. Perc. 12 To boxe a shadowe, and beate their knuckels against a bare wall. 1601Sir J. Ogle in Sir F. Vere Comm. 150 He..must sit with his hands bound, whilest boyes and devils come and box him about the ears. a1661B. Holyday Juvenal 206 Xerxes commanded them to give the sea 300 strokes with a scourge, and to box it. 1666Pepys Diary 20 Jan., I become angry, and boxed my boy..that I do hurt my thumb. 1704Steele Lying Lover ii. (1747) 31 Lettice—I'll down right box you—Hold your Tongue, Gipsy. 1783Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (Morell) i. s.v. Ear, Boxed on the ear, colaphis, vel alapis, cæsus. 1837Disraeli Venetia i. ix. (1871) 42 Attempting to box her son's ears. 1876Black Madcap V. i. 3 I've a good mind to box your ears.
fig.1674R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 29 To have our ears weekly boxt about with the Philosophers-stone, Horizontal Gold and Noble Mercury.
2. a. intr. To fight with fists; now mostly of purely athletic practice with boxing-gloves.
1567J. Studley Seneca's Hippolytus (1581) 64 b, The naked Fist found out To scratch and cuffe, to boxe and bum. 1682Dryden Epil. Banks' Unhappy Fav. 33 'Tis just like children when they box with pillows. 1765Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 170 Two men boxing together in the next street. 1790Cowper Odyss. viii. 124 To leap, to box, to wrestle and to run. 1819Byron Juan ii. xcii, For sometimes we must box without the muffle. a1859De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. Wks. I. 36 To box..was in those days a mere necessity of schoolboy life at public schools.
b. to box it out, etc.: cf. to fight it out.
1697Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. i. (1709) 132 Clowns may Box if off, and be quiet. 1702De Foe More Reform. Pref. 2 The Englishmen fairly Box it out.
c. to box on: to continue boxing or fighting; also fig. colloq.
1919Downing Digger Dial. 13 Box on, (1) continue; (2) fight. 1954F. C. Avis Boxing Ref. Dict. 14 Box, an order of the referee to the contestants to carry on with the contest; also..Box On. 1959‘D. Buckingham’ Wind Tunnel vii. 61, I would face her with Paddy's story and then ‘box-on’ from there. 1965New Statesman 7 May 725/1 However clever and facile I was, I lost friends and failed to influence people. But I boxed on.
d. to box clever: to behave cleverly; to use one's wits. slang.
1936J. Curtis Gilt Kid vi. 62 He knew, however, that he would have to box clever. 1950A. Baron There's no Home 210 If you box clever and keep your mouth shut,..you ought to be able to count on a suspended sentence.
3. a. trans. To fight (another) with fists.
1694R. L'Estrange Fables (1699) 343 The Ass..look'd on, till they had box'd themselves a weary. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xvi. ii, Box thee for a bellyfull. 1803Bristed Pedest. Tour I. 359 If they were to..box each other.
b. colloq. or dial. phr. to box Harry: to go without a meal; to have a poor meal so as to save expense.
1823‘Jon Bee’ Slang 16 Box-harry, to go without victuals. Confined truants, at school, without fire, fought or boxed an old figure nicknamed ‘Harry’, which hung up in their prison—to keep heat. 1862G. Borrow Wild Wales II. i. 3 Those [commercial travellers] whose employers were in a small way of business, or allowed them insufficient salaries, frequently used to ‘box Harry’, that is have a beef-steak, or mutton-chop, or perhaps bacon and eggs..instead of the regular dinner of a commercial gentleman. Ibid. Having made arrangements for ‘boxing Harry’ I went into the tap room. 1902N. & Q. 7 June 450/1 An old woman..was telling me that she had only by her a very poor supply of seed [potatoes], and finished up by ejaculating, ‘Never mind, I must box Harry...’ When questioned..she said..she must needs do without. Ibid. 5 July 13/2 ‘Box Harry’. This is well known in the Northern Counties in the sense of doing things ‘on the cheap’... In Mr. Page's instance the woman seems to have meant she must beg some potatoes to make up the deficiency.
4. transf. To strike with the fore-paw.
a1711Grew (J.) A leopard is like a cat; he boxes with his forefeet, as a cat doth her kitlins. |