Merriam-Webster Logo
SINCE 1828
Menu
dictionary thesaurus

Boxing Day

noun

Definition of Boxing Day

: the first weekday after Christmas observed as a legal holiday in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and marked by the giving of Christmas boxes to service workers (such as postal workers)

See Boxing Day defined for English-language learners

See Boxing Day defined for kids

First Known Use of boxing day

1747

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year
NEW! Time Traveler

BOXING DAY Defined for English Language Learners

Boxing Day

noun

Definition of Boxing Day for English Language Learners

  • : a holiday that is celebrated especially in England and Canada on the first day after Christmas that is not a Sunday

Learn More about boxing day

  1. See words that rhyme with Boxing Day

Seen and Heard

What made you want to look up Boxing Day? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

show hide

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

WORD OF THE DAY

salvo

play

a simultaneous discharge of guns

Get Word of the Day daily email!

TRENDING NOW

  1. socialism 'a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government'

  2. uphold 'to let stand'

  3. due process 'a course of formal proceedings (as judicial proceedings)'

  4. asylum 'protection from arrest and extradition given especially to political refugees'

  5. insubordinate 'disobedient to authority'

SEE ALL

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Boxing Day

Test Your Vocabulary

Obscure Shapes

  • a-pile-of-three-dimensional-shapes-in-green
  • Something that is ooid is shaped like:
Spell It

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ
SCRABBLE® Sprint

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Words at Play

Ask the Editors

Word Games