pyxing

Noun

pyx (plural pyxes)

1. (also, figuratively) A small, usually round container used to hold the host (“consecrated bread or wafer of the Eucharist”), especially when bringing communion to the sick or others unable to attend Mass.
   • [F]oraſmuche as we have often and many tymes, to our inwarde regrete and diſpleaſure, ſeen at oure Jen, in diverſe and many Churches of our Realme, the holie Sacrament of the Aulter kept in ful simple and inhoneſt Pixes, ſpecially Pixes of copre and tymbre: we have appointed and commaunded the...1509 April 20 (Gregorian calendar), Henry VII of England, edited by [Thomas Astle], The Will of King Henry VII, London: Printed for the editor; and sold by T[homas] Payne, […]; and B[enjamin] White...

   Synonyms:

   pyxis, ciborium

2. (broadly, rare) A (small) box; a casket, a coffret.
   • It is not Beauty, which its Bluſh doth owe / Unto the Pixe and Pencill.1648, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto X. The Marveils. Stanza 1.”, in Psyche: Or Loves Mysterie, […], London: […] John Dawson for George Boddington, […], →OCLC, page 156, column 1

   Synonyms:

   pyxis

3. (UK) A box used in a mint as a place to deposit sample coins intended to have the fineness of their metal and their weight tested before the coins are issued to the public.
   • [T]he said Tresurer and other Officers of the sayd Mynts, to bring with them, at that tyme and place, all ther Pixes, and ther severall Indentures of Coynag, by and for the holle tyme the said Assaye shall be taken.16th–17th century, Rogers Ruding, “Of the Trial of the Pix”, in [John Yonge Akerman], editor, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain and Its Dependencies; from the Earliest Period of Authentic...
4. (obsolete, rare) A compass used by sailors.
   • Here I lament I had not the accomodation^([sic]) of the Pyxis, or any Horizontal Plate divided into more points of the Compaſs, though I ſee not that Natural Knowledge requires ſo exact a Pyx as Navigation uſeth; becauſe I boggle at this, that I find the North Cardinal point gives more inſtances...1686, J[ohn] Goad, chapter XII, in Astro-meteorologica, or, Aphorisms and Large Significant Discourses of the Natures and Influences of the Cœlestial Bodies; […], 2nd edition, London: […] O[badiah]...

See all 7 meanings of pyx