Dictionary

deathbox en · NOUN

Etymology

From death + box. Compare Dutch doodskist (literally “death-chest”).

Meanings

1. (nonstandard, qualifier:kenning) coffin
   • I always remember hearing infantry men say to us again and again: 'I wouldn't like to go in your deathboxes,' and we always answered: 'And we don't like to walk.'” 2003, Philip Kaplan, Chariots of Fire:
   • Razor's mother hollered and spread her body atop her son's shiny death box. “Why, Lord? Why my chile?!” the woman screamed. 2011, Amaleka McCall, Hard Candy:
   • Once he was asleep again, they brought him back again, bound him, sealed him in his deathbox, muffled the World from him with a black, black pall. 2002, William T. Vollmann, Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith:
   • The local militia, led by their 'jack captain, paid their respects by carrying the death-box and by escorting it. 2011, Ian Watson, The Book of the Stars: Black Current, book 2:

Forms