Word.ws English Dictionary

penalty boxes

penalty boxes is the plural of penalty box.

Meaning of penalty box

Noun

penalty box (plural penalty boxes)

  1. An enclosed bench where a player must remain for timed period (a penalty) that is assessed after an infraction.
    • Both players got to cool their heels for five minutes in their respective penalty boxes after the fight.
  2. The penalty area.
    • At times, Swindon's penalty box resembled a pinball machine.2000 March 12, Stuart Barnes, “Swindon stunner for Curbishley”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    sin bin
  3. (figuratively, idiomatic) A temporary punishment, or, metaphorically, a similar setback (e.g., loss of control, embarrassment, etc.).
    • A visit to the penalty box occurs when the salesman has relinquished control of the sales call by immediately answering the customer's question.2003, Tim Breithaupt, 10 Steps to Sales Success: The Proven System That Can Shorten the Selling Cycle, Double Your Close Ratio, →ISBN, page 170

Questions about penalty boxes

What is penalty boxes the plural of?
Penalty boxes is the plural of penalty box.

Words near penalty boxes in the dictionary

  1. penalty arc
  2. penalty arcs
  3. penalty area
  4. penalty areas
  5. penalty box
  6. penalty boxes
  7. penalty card
  8. penalty cards
  9. penalty copy
  10. penalty corner
  11. penalty corners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penalty boxes (page history and authors); penalty 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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