box

1 a covered rectangular container for storing or transporting things filled a whole box with books Synonyms bin, box, caddy, case, casket, locker, trunkRelated Words carton, crate; footlocker, locker, sea chest; coffer, lockbox, safe, safe-deposit box, strongbox; coffin; compartment, vault; canteen; caisson, hope chest; minaudière; bandbox, hatbox, jewel box, snuffbox, tinderbox

2 a boxlike container for holding a dead body the only way I'm ever leaving this hospital room is in a box Synonyms bier, box, casket, pall, sarcophagusRelated Words charnel (also charnel house), crypt, sepulchre (or sepulcher), sepulture, tomb, vault; urn; body bag

3 an electronic device with a screen and speakers that reproduces images and sound would you switch on the box so that we can watch the news? Synonyms boob tube, box, idiot box, telly [chiefly British], tube, TVRelated Words LCD, plasma; home theater, home video

4 a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape with our new home still unfinished, and the buyers of our condo eager to move in, we were in a real box Synonyms bind, box, catch-22, corner, dilemma, fix, hole, impasse, jackpot [chiefly West], jam, mire, pickle, quagmire, rabbit hole, rattrap, spot, sticky wicket, swampRelated Words difficulty, node; hot water, soup; pinch, plight, quandary, scrape, trouble; deadlock, halt, logjam, stalemate, standstill; clutch, crisis, crossroad, emergency, exigency, juncture, strait

a hard strike with a part of the body or an instrument the vicious bully delivered a box to the child's ear Synonyms bang, bash, bat, beat, belt, biff, bop, box, buffet, bust, chop, clap, clip, clout, crack, cuff, dab, douse [British], fillip, hack, haymaker, hit, hook, knock, larrup [dialect], lash, lick, pelt, pick, plump, poke, pound, punch, rap, slam, slap, slug, smack, smash, sock, spank, stinger, stripe, stroke, swat, swipe, switch, thud, thump, thwack, wallop, welt, whack, wham, whop (also whap)Related Words counter, counterblow, counterpunch, counterstroke; body blow, hand, kick, knee, left, one-two, rabbit punch, right, right-hander, roundhouse, shiver, sidewinder, sucker punch, swing, uppercut; cruncher, kayo, knockdown, knockout, KO; bastinado (or bastinade), battering, beating, bludgeoning, clobbering, cudgeling (or cudgelling), drubbing, hammering, lambasting, licking, pasting, pounding, pummeling (also pummelling), thrashing; flogging, walloping, whip, whipping

to deliver a blow to (someone or something) usually in a strong vigorous manner his mother threatened to box his ears if he didn't show a bit more respect Synonyms bang, bash, bat, belt, biff, bludgeon, bob, bonk, bop, hit, bust, clap, clip, clobber, clock, clout, crack, hammer, knock, nail, paste, pound, punch, rap, slam, slap, slog, slug, smack, smite, sock, strike, swat, swipe, tag, thump, thwack, wallop, whack, whale, zapRelated Words batter, beat, buffet, bung, chop, cuff, drub, lace, lambaste (or lambast), lick, mangle, maul, pelt, pepper, pommel, pummel, rough; scuff; bunt, flick, stroke, tap; bump, butt, jab, jostle, kick, knee, poke, prod, push, shove, stamp; bowl (down or over), cream, deck, dump [slang], fell, floor, knock down, level; rabbit-punch, sucker punch; cane, club, cudgel, flail, flog, lash, sap, slash, sledge, sledgehammer, spear, stab, switch, thrash, whip; bean, brain, conk, skull