bento boxes

Noun

bento box (plural bento boxes)

1. A partitioned, traditionally lacquered, lunchbox in which a bento (“Japanese takeaway lunch”) is served.
   • My heart was filled with covetousness as I saw the fine old lacquer bento boxes which they produced after carefully removing many silk wrappings.1895 April, Alfred Parsons, “Autumn in Japan”, in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, volume XC, number DXXXIX, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 772, column 2

   Synonyms:

   bento

2. Synonym of bento (“a Japanese takeaway lunch served in a box”).
   • [M]arvelous vegetable sushi—slivers of cucumber and carrot and threads of ginger rolled in cooked rice, then in leaves of seaweed and dusted with roasted white sesame seeds—which I ate one evening at Anzu, a restaurant that serves, to Dallas's satisfaction, its bento boxes with a Texas twang.1994 September, Fred Ferretti, “A Gourmet at Large: Lone Star Chefs and Cookbook Pleasures”, in Gail Zweigenthal, editor, Gourmet: The Magazine of Good Living, volume LIV, number 9, New York, N.Y....

   Synonyms:

   bento