box
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɒks/
enpr: bäks
ipa: /bɑks/
rhymes: -ɒks
Forms: form: boxes
Etymology: Etymology tree
Latin buxusbor.
Proto-West Germanic *buhs
Old English box
Middle English box
English box
From Middle English box (“box tree; boxwood”), from Old English box (“box tree”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhs (“box tree; thing made from boxwood”), from Latin buxus (“box tree; thing made from boxwood”), buxum (“box tree; boxwood”), possibly from πύξος (púxos, “box tree; boxwood”).
Senses: examples: text: And no maruell. For, the leaues of Boxe be deletorious, poiſonous, deadlie, and to the bodie of man very noiſome, dangerous and peſtilent[…]
ref: 1587, Leuinus Lemnius, translated by Thomas Newton, An Herball to the Bible […] , London: Edmund Bollifant, page 207:
text: He strayed down a walk edged with box; with apple trees, pear trees, and cherry trees on one side, and a border on the other, full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweet-williams, primroses, pansies, mingled with southernwood, sweet-briar, and various fragrant herbs.
ref: 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter V, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 130–131:
text: "Box makes a statement without having to do much: just trim twice a year and keep it weeded. It's a bit of a lazy gardener's plant." This, no doubt, is what makes box so popular with show home developers and city dwellers – there is scarce a balcony or front door anywhere that cannot be improved by a box ball in a pot.
ref: 2014 November 19, Ambra Edwards, “Topiary: We're all going bonkers about box [print version: Bonkers about box, 22 November 2014, page G3]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening):
glosses: Any of various evergreen shrubs or trees of genus Buxus, especially common box, European box, or boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) which is often used for making hedges and topiary.
examples: text: Nevertheless, the application of woods other than box for purposes for which that wood is now used would tend to lessen the demand for box, and thus might have an effect in lowering its price.
ref: 1885 April 10, John R. Jackson, “Boxwood and Its Substitutes”, in Journal of the Society of Arts, volume XXXIII, number 1,690, London: Published for the Society by George Bell and Sons, […], page 567, column 1:
glosses: The wood from a box tree: boxwood.
examples: text: Evenin’, folks. Thought y’all might lak uh lil music this evenin’ so Ah brought long mah box.
ref: 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 11, in Their Eyes were Watching God: A Novel, Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition, Philadelphia, Pa.; London: J.B. Lippincott Company, →OCLC; Illini Books edition, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1978, →ISBN, page 153:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A musical instrument, especially one made from boxwood.
glosses: An evergreen tree of the genus Lophostemon (for example, box scrub, Brisbane box, brush box, pink box, or Queensland box, Lophostemon confertus).
examples: text: The name "Black Box" seems to be most generally in use for this species, Eucalyptus boormani; the even better name of "Ironbark Box" (which certainly indicates its affinities) is nearly as frequently in use.
ref: 1909, J. H. Maiden, A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus, Government of the State of New South Wales:
glosses: Various species of Eucalyptus trees are popularly called various kinds of boxes, on the basis of the nature of their wood, bark, or appearance for example, drooping box (Eucalyptus bicolor), shiny-leaved box (Eucalyptus tereticornis), black box, or ironbark box trees.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Eucalyptus spp.
word: apple box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Eucalyptus tereticornis
word: bastard box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: bonnet-box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: bonnet box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box alder
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Acer negundo
word: box elder
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Gaultheria procumbens
word: boxberry
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box-edged
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: boxen
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: boxer
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box-gum
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Eucalyptus odorata
word: box gum
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: Box Hill
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box holly
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
alt: Russus aculeatus
word: box-holly
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box-room
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Lophostemon confertus
word: box scrub
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box-slip
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box thorn
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box-thorn
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Lycium spp.
word: boxthorn
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box-tree
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: box tree
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Buxus spp.
word: boxwood
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Lophostemon confertus
word: Brisbane box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Lophostemon confertus
word: brush box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Buxus sempervirens
word: common box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Buxus sempervirens suffruticosa
word: dwarf box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Buxus sempervirens
word: European box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Vaccinium vitis-idaea
word: flowering box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Eucalyptus spp.
word: grey box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Buxus sempervirens suffruticosa
word: ground box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
alt: Hebe odora
word: mountain box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Bursaria spinosa
word: native box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Eucalyptus odorata
word: peppermint box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Lophostemon confertus
word: pink box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Bursaria spinosa
word: prickly box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Lophostemon confertus
word: Queensland box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Eucalyptus polyanthemos
word: red box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Bursaria spinosa
word: spiny box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: Tasmanian box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Bursaria spinosa
word: thorn box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
word: white box
sense: Terms derived from box (noun, etymology 2)
taxonomic: Eucalyptus melliodora
word: yellow box