<B>box office,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the office or booth in a theater, hall, or stadium, where tickets of admission are sold. <DD><B> 2. </B>the money taken in at such a place. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Informal.) an entertainer or entertainment capable of attracting audiences and earning money. </DL>
<A NAME="boxoffice">
<B>box-office, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) <DD><B> 1. </B>with respect to receipts taken in at a box office. <BR> <I>Ex. The popular play was an astounding box-office success.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>popular and profitable. <BR> <I>Ex. This concert isn't box-office.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="boxoyster">
<B>box oyster,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a large, high-grade oyster, formerly packed in boxes instead of barrels. </DL>
<A NAME="boxpleat">
<B>box pleat,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a double pleat with the cloth folded under at each side. </DL>
<A NAME="boxroom">
<B>boxroom, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) a storeroom, especially for boxes, trunks, unwanted furniture, and other household miscellany. </DL>
<A NAME="boxscore">
<B>box score,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a statistical summary of all the plays of a baseball game arranged in a table by the names of the players. </DL>
<A NAME="boxseat">
<B>box seat,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a chair or seat in a box at a theater, hall, stadium, grandstand, or race track. </DL>
<A NAME="boxset">
<B>box set,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a stage set in which the back and sidewalls are visible to the audience. </DL>
<A NAME="boxsocial">
<B>box social,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a social gathering, usually to raise money, at which boxes of food or gifts are raffled or auctioned. <BR> <I>Ex. The Ladies Auxiliary of the 19th Alberta Dragoons held a successful box social and dance (Edmonton Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="boxspanner">
<B>box spanner,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British.) a box wrench. </DL>
<A NAME="boxspring">
<B>box spring,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a set of bedsprings in a boxlike frame with padding over them, covered with ticking or some other firmly woven material. </DL>
<A NAME="boxstall">
<B>box stall,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a roomy, enclosed compartment for a horse or other large animal in a stable or vehicle; box. </DL>
<A NAME="boxtail">
<B>box tail,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a tail or rudder used on certain early aircraft and shaped somewhat like a box kite. </DL>
<A NAME="boxthorn">
<B>boxthorn, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of various ornamental shrubs of the nightshade family, some of which are grown for their bright-red or orange berries; matrimony vine. </DL>
<A NAME="boxtoe">
<B>box toe,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a toe in shoes or boots with a stiff, strong lining. <BR> <I>Ex. Thermoplastic material ... is used for hard box toes (Science News Letter).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the lining used. </DL>
<A NAME="boxtop">
<B>box top,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the top part or cover of a packaged product, usually bearing the brand name, used as evidence of purchase by a consumer to obtain a premium. <BR> <I>Ex. Buy the merchandise and send the box top off with a coin in return for all sorts of items (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="boxtrap">
<B>box trap,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a trap for catching small animals alive, consisting of an inclined box which drops flat when a baited trigger is disturbed or a box with a flap or flaps that drop down. </DL>
<A NAME="boxturtle">
<B>box turtle</B> or <B>tortoise,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of several species of American land turtles, which can withdraw entirely within their shells and close them by hinges in the lower halves. </DL>
<B>boxwood, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the hard, fine-grained wood of the box, much used for wood engraver's blocks, and for musical and mathematical instruments. <DD><B> 2. </B>the tree or shrub itself. <DD><B> 3. </B>any one of various shrubs or trees with a hard, compact wood, such as the flowering dogwood of the United States. </DL>
<A NAME="boxwork">
<B>boxwork, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a colorful network of calcite crystals, usually found on the ceilings of caves. </DL>
<A NAME="boxwrench">
<B>box wrench,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a kind of wrench which fits completely around the bolthead; socket wrench. </DL>
<A NAME="boxy">
<B>boxy, </B>adjective, <B>boxier,</B> <B>boxiest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>shaped like a box; square; squat. <BR> <I>Ex. a boxy house.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>loose-fitting with straight lines, as a box coat. noun <B>boxiness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="boy">
<B>boy, </B>noun, interjection.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a male child from birth to about eighteen. <BR> <I>Ex. ... a lad of mettle, a good boy (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><B> 2a. </B>a young or immature man. <BR> <I>Ex. a college boy.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(Informal.) man; fellow. <DD><B> 3. </B>a male servant. <DD><B> 4. </B>a bellboy. <DD><B> 5. </B>(U.S. Slang.) a black male of any age (used in an unfriendly way). <DD><I>interj. </I> (Informal.) an exclamation of surprise, dismay, etc.. <BR> <I>Ex. Boy! Isn't it hot!</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>the boys,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>the sons of a family. </I> <I>Ex. The boys will be home for Thanksgiving.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(Informal.) a strictly male company. <BR> <I>Ex. The card game at the lodge is for the boys only.</I> <DD><B> c. </B>(Informal.) political followers; hangers-on. <BR> <I>Ex. Machine politicians ... always want someone who will be kind to 'the boys' (New York Evening Post).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="boyar">
<B>boyar, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a member of a former high-ranking order of the Russian aristocracy, abolished by Peter the Great. <DD><B> 2. </B>a member of a former privileged class in Romania. <BR> <I>Ex. The government took the estates of the large landowners, or boyars, and sold them in small lots to small farmers (Alvin Z. Rubinstein).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="boyard">
<B>boyard, </B>noun. <B>=boyar.</B></DL>
<A NAME="boyau">
<B>boyau, </B>noun, pl. <B>boyaux.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Military Science.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a connecting trench. <DD><B> 2. </B>a branch or small gallery of a mine. </DL>
<A NAME="boycott">
<B>boycott, </B>verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to join together against and have nothing to do with (a person, business, nation, employer, or any other person or thing) in order to coerce or punish. If people are boycotting someone, they do not associate with him, or buy from or sell to him, and they try to keep others from doing so. <DD><B> 2. </B>to refuse to buy or use (a product or service). <DD><I>noun </I> an act of boycotting. <BR> <I>Ex. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers ... were ready to press a boycott on Japanese textile goods (New Yorker).</I> noun <B>boycotter.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="boyfriend">
<B>boyfriend, </B>noun, or <B>boy friend,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a girl's sweetheart or steady male companion. <DD><B> 2. </B>a male friend. </DL>
<A NAME="boyhood">
<B>boyhood, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the time or condition of being a boy. <BR> <I>Ex. boyhood adventures. (Figurative.) In the boyhood of the year (Tennyson).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>boys as a group. <BR> <I>Ex. The boyhood of the nation produces the leaders of the future.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="boyish">
<B>boyish, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of a boy. <BR> <I>Ex. boyish ambitions, the lad's boyish energy.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>like a boy. <BR> <I>Ex. a boyish young man.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>like a boy's. <BR> <I>Ex. the girl's boyish hair.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>fit for a boy; suitable for a boy. <BR> <I>Ex. boyish games.</I> adv. <B>boyishly.</B> noun <B>boyishness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="boyleslaw">
<B>Boyle's law,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Physics, Chemistry.) the law that at any given temperature the volume of a given mass of gas varies inversely with the pressure to which it is subjected. </DL>
<A NAME="boyo">
<B>boyo, </B>noun, pl. <B>boyos.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Irish Dialect.) a boy; lad. <DD><B> 2. </B>(U.S. Slang.) a man; fellow. </DL>
<A NAME="boys">
<B>boys, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> See under <B>boy.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="boyscout">
<B>boy scout,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>Also, <B>Boy Scout.</B> a member of the Boy Scouts. <DD><B> 2. </B>(U.S. Slang, Figurative.) an unrealistic or overly idealistic person. <BR> <I>Ex. They are all judge, secular priest, and transcendent boy scout rolled into one (Commentary).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="boyscouts">
<B>Boy Scouts,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an organization for boys to learn skills and develop manliness and usefulness to others. It was founded in England in 1908 by Lieutenant-General Sir Robert S. S. Baden-Powell. </DL>
<A NAME="boysenberry">
<B>boysenberry, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a purple berry like a blackberry in size and shape, and like a raspberry in flavor. <DD><B> 2. </B>the plant it grows on. It was developed in California from a cross between several kinds of blackberries and a raspberry. The boysenberry belongs to the rose family. </DL>
<B>B.P.E.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) Bachelor of Physical Education. </DL>
<A NAME="bphil">
<B>B.Phil.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> Bachelor of Philosophy. </DL>
<A NAME="bpicture">
<B>B-picture, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a motion picture of inferior quality, usually made rapidly and at minimum expense. <BR> <I>Ex. Hollywood was apparently rescuing realism from its friends, and burying in B-pictures the stuff of genius (Harper's).</I> </DL>
