Word.ws English Dictionary

box of tricks

box of tricks noun: a box, suitcase, etc., used by a magician to carry stage paraphernalia.

Noun

box of tricks

  1. A box, suitcase, etc., used by a magician to carry stage paraphernalia.
  2. (figuratively) Anything used to perform a specific task or achieve a particular goal; the means or apparatus used to accomplish something.
    • Uncle Sam has found his box of tricks heavy, and is having a whiff before going on with his white man's burden to the end.1902 January 2, The Evening Telegraph, Charters Towers, page 3, column 2
  3. (figuratively) A crafty person.
    • "You damned, canting, hypocritical box-of-tricks. I'll be even with you yet." The heavy door slammed behind him.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

Forms of box of tricks

alternative formbox-of-tricks

Words formed from box of tricks

Questions about box of tricks

What does box of tricks mean?
Box of tricks means a box, suitcase, etc., used by a magician to carry stage paraphernalia.
What part of speech is box of tricks?
Box of tricks is a noun.

Words near box of tricks in the dictionary

  1. box numbers
  2. box of birds
  3. box of fluffies
  4. box of fluffy ducks
  5. box of ivories
  6. box of tricks
  7. box off
  8. box office
  9. box offices
  10. box oneself into a corner
  11. box operator

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: box of tricks (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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