box in
phrasal verb
boxed in; boxing in; boxes in
: to surround (someone or something) and make movement difficult
The other bicyclists boxed her in and she couldn't move ahead.
—usually used as (be) boxed inWe were boxed in and couldn't get out of our parking space.
—sometimes used figurativelyI feel boxed in by all these rules.
Examples of box in in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
As staffers stream out onto the street, file boxes in hand, expense accounts disappear overnight, and the economy of the city seizes up.
—
New York Times, 7 May 2025
Options among the four available range from an exact reproduction (this creates difficult-to-manage text boxes in Word) to unformatted text.
—PC Magazine, 30 Apr. 2025
As Hocevar's car was wide out of his pit box, Josh Berry, who was coming into the pit box in front of him, knocked the tires in Morehead's hands.
—Mohammed Soliman, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Apr. 2025
Sephton, reinstated in his box in one corner of Anfield, played music and made announcements, but did so to an empty stadium.
—Jamie Barton, CNN Money, 28 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for box in
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New York Times, 7 May 2025
Options among the four available range from an exact reproduction (this creates difficult-to-manage text boxes in Word) to unformatted text.
—PC Magazine, 30 Apr. 2025
As Hocevar's car was wide out of his pit box, Josh Berry, who was coming into the pit box in front of him, knocked the tires in Morehead's hands.
—Mohammed Soliman, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Apr. 2025
Sephton, reinstated in his box in one corner of Anfield, played music and made announcements, but did so to an empty stadium.
—Jamie Barton, CNN Money, 28 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for box in
Cite this Entry
“Box in.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/box%20in. Accessed 23 May. 2025.
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