hot box

Noun

hotbox (plural hotboxes)

1. A container maintained at elevated temperatures in order to heat or cook its contents.
   • We made a hundred pizzas with a variety of toppings and put them in hotboxes — portable sterno heaters.1986, Tom Monaghan, Robert Anderson, Pizza Tiger, page 135
   1. An oven.
2. An overheated shaft bearing.
   • If a hotbox is not discovered early, the temperature of the journal or bearing may rise to a critical level, so that the wheel end of the journal may burn off and cause a derailment of the car.1972, Richard Johnson, Railroad Technology and Manpower in the 1970's, page 31
   1. An overheated axle box, bearing and bearing enclosure.
      • One of the ex-L. & Y.R. "pugs" displaced by diesels at Bank Hall, No. 51232, is going to Preston for employment on the dock lines there, but when en route on December 31 it ran out of water and also sustained a hot box, as a result of which it was detained at Bank Hall.1961 March, “Motive Power Miscellany”, in Trains Illustrated, page 181
3. A room or compartment that is kept artificially warm for some purpose.
   • The hotbox should be located in the nearest vicinity of the sorting room. The hotbox is a chamber in which air can be heated to a temperature of about 60 ° C.1964, Andrzej Doberczak, St Dowgielewicz, Witold Żurek, Cotton, Bast, and Wool Fibers, page 448
   1. A cold frame containing compost that provides a limited amount of warmth.
      • Near-synonym: hotbed

See all 22 meanings of hotbox