pillar boxn.
/ˈpɪləbɒks/, U.S. /ˈpɪlərˌbɑks/ 1. A free-standing public postbox shaped like a pillar, typically (in Britain) about four feet in height, made of cast iron, painted red, and with a slightly rounded cap.The invention and design of the pillar box are usually attributed to the English novelist Anthony Trollope (1815–82); the first box was installed in 1852 at St Helier, Jersey, where Trollope worked as a post office inspector.
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society > communication > correspondence > postal services > equipment for sending or delivering mail > [noun] > post- or letter-box > pillar-box
postbox1786
pillar-post1840
pillar letter-box1854
pillar box1855
pillar1865
1855 Willis's Current Notes Mar. 24/2 On the 5th inst., the writer noticed the placing an iron receiving pillar-box for letters to be forwarded by the postal authorities, in Fleet Street, at the corner of Farringdon Street.
1858 Brit. Postal Guide 146 A collection is made from the Pillar Boxes at 5 a.m. for the morning mails.
1871 M. Collins Marquis & Merchant I. ix. 300 I've a..letter to write, which you must send to a pillar-box.
1939 ‘J. Struther’ Mrs. Miniver 173 She put on a mackintosh and struggled up the square to the pillar-box.
1978 L. Davidson Chelsea Murders xix. 106 This one had been posted in a street pillar box.
2001 Daily Tel. 26 June 21/5 Commemorative stamps are to be issued next year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the pillar box.
2. In full pillar-box red. A bright red colour, of the shade used on British pillar boxes.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > red or redness > [noun] > shades of red > bright red or scarlet
cockea1382
coccyn1382
coctin1382
vermiliona1400
scarlet-redc1405
sinoper1412
scarletc1440
sinople?c1450
vermeletc1530
lusty gallant1587
vermeil1590
vermeil red1590
minium1601
cinnabar?1614
cochineal1632
poppy red1679
poppy colour1705
cherry-colour1720
ponceau1782
Turkey red1789
pinkc1791
coquelicot1795
poppy1796
cherry-red1802
vermilion-red1815
cardinal scarlet1828
geranium1842
dahlia1846
cardinal red1850
cerise1858
cardinal1874
scarlet-crimson1882
vermilion-scarlet1882
pillar box1894
Turkish red1900
signal red1909
fuchsia1923
1894 Pall Mall Gaz. 6 Aug. 3/1 As the necessity arises for repainting why should not the shop fronts [of the post offices] be coloured like the self-assertive pillar-boxes—namely with ‘Pillar-box Red’?
1904 Notes & Queries 10th Ser. 23 Apr. 332/2 The church itself is of a Salvation Army red, with white window frames, and has a black turret. The very signposts are a pillar-box red.
1916 Sphere 1 July p. iv/1 Some charming chapeaux of the new pillar-box red.
1963 Listener 10 Jan. 84/2 I don't like the colours, especially the Ribena, pillarbox, scrofula, and sulphur.
1992 Machine Knitting Monthly Aug. (BNC) 70 I prefer crimson or deep orange rather than pillar-box red.
3. Military. In the First World War (1914–18): a concrete structure used as a gun emplacement; = pillbox n. 3. historical in later use.
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society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > castle or fortified building > [noun] > blockhouse or pill-box
blockhouse1512
Puntal1702
block1829
pillar box1916
pillbox1917
1916 Diary (63rd Field Company, Royal Engineers) in P. Oldham Armageddon's Walls (2014) i. 9 Royal Artillery Observation Posts and M[achine]G[un] emplacements, ‘Pillar Boxes’ sites selected.
1921 N. Lytton Press & Gen. Staff v. 90 The pill-box (which was originally called the pillar-box) evolved from the machine-gun nest.
2014 P. Oldham Armageddon's Walls i. 9 It is apparent that the embrasure was seen as being similar to a posting box. The name pillar box had been used long before the Ypres fighting in 1917.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1855