Dictionary

cheese box en · NOUN

Etymology

(phreaking device): The device could originally be fitted into a wooden box intended for cheese. Compare blue box.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of cheesebox (“container for cheese”).
   alt of cheesebox
2. A device formerly used by phreakers to convert a home telephone line into a payphone.
   • The cheese box bridges two separate telephone lines. It is often used by bookmakers and bettors to place free calls for accepting or placing bets. 1978, Bell telephone magazine, volumes 57-58:
   • There are files circulating about the modem/phreak world regarding a device known as a cheese box. 2009, Emmanuel Goldstein, The Best of 2600, Collector's Edition: A Hacker Odyssey, page 40:
   • Then the bookie leaves the site of the phone and stations himself blocks away in another room with a phone attached to a similar cheese box. 1967, William Surface, Inside Internal Revenue:

Forms