Word.ws English Dictionary

box and cox

box and cox verb: to alternate with each other, often in the same post or location.

Verb

box and cox (third-person singular simple present boxes and coxes, present participle boxing and coxing, simple past and past participle boxed and coxed)

  1. (UK, ambitransitive) To alternate with each other, often in the same post or location.
    • If any single production staked his claim to greatness it was John Barton’s 1973 RSC production of Richard II, in which Pasco and Ian Richardson boxed and coxed the roles of the King and Bolingbroke.2014 November 26, Richard Pasco – obituary, The Daily Telegraph
  2. (UK, ambitransitive) To alternate between two people.
    • Although he meets von Humboldt by the end of the first chapter, it will take the whole book for there to be a meeting of minds between these two giants of the German intellect, with Kehlmann boxing and coxing between the two chapter by chapter.2007 April 14, Giles Foden, “The long and the short of it: Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann”, in The Guardian

Proper noun capitalized: Box and Cox

Box and Cox pl (plural only)

  1. (UK, attributive, often, plural, plural-only) Two people who occupy the same post or location in an alternating arrangement.

Forms of box and cox

third-person singular presentboxes and coxes
present participleboxing and coxing
past participleboxed and coxed
pastboxed and coxed
alternative formbox-and-cox
alternative formBox-and-Cox

Origin of box and cox

From Box and Cox.

From the characters of the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton, in which an unscrupulous landlady rents a room to two men, one during the day and one at night.

Questions about box and cox

What does box and cox mean?
Box and cox means to alternate with each other, often in the same post or location.
What part of speech is box and cox?
Box and cox can be a verb or a proper noun.
What is the past tense of box and cox?
The past tense of box and cox is boxed and coxed.

Words near box and cox in the dictionary

  1. bowyangs
  2. bowyer
  3. bowyers
  4. bowyery
  5. box
  6. box and cox
  7. box and lock
  8. box and whisker plot
  9. box and whisker plots
  10. box and whiskers plot
  11. box and whiskers plots

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: box and cox (page history and authors); Box and Cox (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “box and cox.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/box_and_cox. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.