Word.ws English Dictionary

unboxing

unboxing is the present participle and gerund of unbox.

Noun

unboxing (countable and uncountable, plural unboxings)

  1. The removal of something from its box; an unpacking.
    • The most popular unboxings are for expensive gadgets, like the iPhone, Xbox and PlayStation consoles.2014 February 13, Heather Kelly, “The bizarre, lucrative world of ‘unboxing’ videos”, in CNN
    • Clips of tech-fiends unwrapping new models of cell phones first began turning up on the Internet about a decade ago. Since then, an entire world has blossomed around the unboxing video, with whole YouTube channels dedicated to the unpackaging of dolls, purses, moisturizers, even food.2014 December 16, Alex Frank, “Happy Unboxing Day! A Small Guide to the Very Large World of Unboxing Videos”, in Vogue
  2. (object-oriented programming) Automatic conversion of objects back to value types.
    • Autoboxing and unboxing are typically used for collections of primitives. […] Unboxing involves the production of a primitive for each object.2014, Robert Liguori, Patricia Liguori, Java 8 Pocket Guide, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 28
    Antonyms:
    boxing, autoboxing

Meaning of unbox

Verb

unbox (third-person singular simple present unboxes, present participle unboxing, simple past and past participle unboxed)

  1. (transitive) To remove from a box.
    • The booksellers' tasks were to unbox, shelve, and handle cash.2005, Andrew Laties, Rebel Bookseller
    Synonyms:
    unpack, uncase, undo
  2. (transitive) To retrieve (a value of a primitive type) from the object in which it is boxed.
    • When a boxing or unboxing operation occurs in code, whether it was implicit or explicit, the IL generated includes the box or unbox command.2004, Stephen Teilhet, Jay Hilyard, C# Cookbook

Antonyms of unboxing

Forms of unboxing

pluralunboxings

Origin of unboxing

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

From unbox + -ing (gerundive ending).

Questions about unboxing

What does unboxing mean?
Unboxing means the removal of something from its box; an unpacking.
What is unboxing the present participle and gerund of?
Unboxing is the present participle and gerund of unbox.
What part of speech is unboxing?
Unboxing is a noun.
What is the plural of unboxing?
The plural of unboxing is unboxings.

Words near unboxing in the dictionary

  1. unboxable
  2. unboxed
  3. unboxer
  4. unboxers
  5. unboxes
  6. unboxing
  7. unboxings
  8. unboxy
  9. unboy
  10. unboycotted
  11. unboyed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unboxing (page history and authors); unbox (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: “unboxing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unboxing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.