blackbox

Noun

black box (plural black boxes)

1. (informal) A flight recorder; the brightly colored cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders in an aircraft designed to aid in determining the cause of an accident.
   • scrutinizing all utterances recorded by the black box

   Synonyms:

   event recorder, opaque box, trip recorder

2. (broadly) Any similar device on motor vehicles, such as rail event recorders and ship trip recorders.
   • the pilothouse's analogue of an airliner's black box
3. A theoretical construct or device with known input and output characteristics but unknown method of operation.
   • The authentication method and its details can be treated as a black box for purposes of this security architecture overview.
4. A device used in phreaking that prevents the calling party from being billed for the call placed.
5. (attributive) A type of theater characterized by a lack of decoration or complex mechanisms.
6. Synonym of football (“the leather briefcase containing classified nuclear war plans which is always near the US President”)

   Synonyms:

   football

See all 7 meanings of black box