Word.ws English Dictionary

in a box

in a box prepositional phrase: under very restrictive limits or boundaries.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Under very restrictive limits or boundaries.
    • By virtue of the sonnet's many complications, Shakespeare put himself in a box when writing poetry.
  2. (euphemistic, idiomatic) Dead.

Questions about in a box

What does in a box mean?
In a box means under very restrictive limits or boundaries.
What part of speech is in a box?
In a box is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in a box in the dictionary

  1. in a bake
  2. in a big way
  3. in a bind
  4. in a blink
  5. in a body
  6. in a box
  7. in a brace of shakes
  8. in a bubble
  9. in a canter
  10. in a cleft stick
  11. in a corner

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in a box (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: “in a box.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_a_box. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.