Word.ws English Dictionary

box in

box in verb: to enclose by drawing a box around.

Verb

box in (third-person singular simple present boxes in, present participle boxing in, simple past and past participle boxed in)

  1. (transitive) To enclose by drawing a box around.
    • For running along the public roads the wheels and motion are completely boxed in; [...].1941 May, Voyageur, “The Clogher Valley Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 195
  2. (transitive) To trap or immobilize something, usually a vehicle, by placing obstacles, usually other vehicles, around it to obstruct its free movement.
    • Realizing he is now boxed in on all sides, Hipper decides the only remaining card he has to play is to sell his ships as dearly as possible. The remaining German ships make a hard turn southeast, and drive headlong at the Grand Fleet. It is a brave gesture, but only eight of the ships emerge from...2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 24:24 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2022
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To limit someone's freedom of thought, movement, expression, etc.

Forms of box in

third-person singular presentboxes in
present participleboxing in
past participleboxed in
pastboxed in

Questions about box in

What does box in mean?
Box in means to enclose by drawing a box around.
What part of speech is box in?
Box in is a verb.
What is the past tense of box in?
The past tense of box in is boxed in.

Words near box in in the dictionary

  1. Box Hill North
  2. Box Hill South
  3. box hockey
  4. box house
  5. box houses
  6. box in
  7. box iron
  8. box irons
  9. box jellies
  10. box jelly
  11. box jellyfish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: box in (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-box in.wav.

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