squeeze boxes

Noun

squeeze box (plural squeeze boxes)

1. (informal) An accordion or concertina.
   • Mama's got a squeeze box she wears on her chest. / From when Daddy comes home, he never gets no rest. / Because she's playing all night, and the music's all right.1975 November, Pete Townshend, “Squeeze Box”, in The Who by Numbers, performed by The Who
2. A box with an adjustable opening used by cavers to practise crawling through tight spaces.
   • At caving conventions aboveground, cavers often squirrel themselves through adjustable wooden "squeeze boxes" in good-natured competitions. In the safety of this controlled setting, cavers may push their capacities far beyond what they might hazard underground; […] A very slender woman's tightest...1998 July, Andrew Todhunter, “Dark Passage: Descending into the Depths of California’s Longest Known Cave”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 282, number 1, archived from the original on 21 September...
3. A container that fits tightly around an animal to immobilize it for medical treatment, transportation, etc.
   • Jebby rushed to the area behind the mare's paddock. What he saw there filled him with fresh concern. Isabella was in the "squeeze box." This, he knew, was a strait jacket for animals! […] He had seen the old squeeze box sitting in the field behind the hoofed animals' paddock. Zoo keepers had used...1963, Ann Cottrell Free, Forever the Wild Mare, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC
4. Synonym of hugbox (“a therapeutic device”).

   Synonyms:

   hugbox