Dictionary

hugbox en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From hug + box.

Meanings

1. A therapeutic device designed to apply pressure to the body of a hypersensitive person (usually someone on the autism spectrum) in order to calm them by providing grounding sensory stimulation.
   • Furthermore, as an autistic individual she [Temple Grandin] was better able to understand the struggles and created the “hug box” which calms autistic children. 2015, Cynthia M. Joseph, “Autism”, in Jennifer Hellier, editor, The Brain, the Nervous System, and Their Diseases, Greenwood, →ISBN, page 118:
   • She [Temple Grandin] couldn't stand to be touched but was starved for affection and the safety of being contained. This need led to her clever device, the “hug box” which compressed her sides like the cattle chute it was modeled after. 2011, Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing, Volume 3, Number 4, October 2011, unnumbered page
   • A short 10-15 minute time to yourself to think, meditate, or, as Temple Grandin did with the “hug box,” find a type of sensory feedback that calms your body and mind. 2013, Ashley Stanford, Troubleshooting Relationships on the Autism Spectrum: A User's Guide to Resolving Relationship Problems, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 233:
2. (derogatory, offensive, slang) An environment that validates or reinforces a narrow set of beliefs by relying on false positivity and excluding any form of criticism.
   • Instead, we get a bunch of hugbox panel discussions where people just reiterate the same, obvious points. Yes, rape is bad. We get it. 2011, "The Waif", "I Hate Activists", Oregon Commentator (University of Oregon), Volume 28, Issue 11, 18 May 2011, page 10
   • "Safe spaces" can be created in private or in the context of clubs of closed, tightly knit groups, but attempting to turn an unparalleled public space into a hugbox will solve exactly nothing and create a generation of crybabies. 2015, Peter Heft, "Against 'Safe Spaces'", The Bullsheet (Denison University), Volume 59, Number 92, 23 March 2015, page 1
   • Discussions on social issues aren't so much “discussions” as online hugboxes, because the mechanics of Tumblr make it so. 2014 February 10, Emma Atlas, “Microblogging: Democratizing truth”, in The Diamondback, volume 104, number 68, University of Maryland, page 4:

Forms

Synonyms

squeeze box · circle jerk · safe space · squeeze machine · hug machine · mutual admiration society · filter bubble · echo chamber

Translations (5)

fi halauskone (therapeutic device) · pl hugbox (therapeutic device) · fi kupla (validating environment) · pl bańka informacyjna (validating environment) · fr hugbox (validating environment)

hugbox en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From hug + box.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, offensive, slang, transitive) To insert into a hugbox; to insert into an environment that validates or reinforces a narrow set of beliefs by relying on false positivity and excluding any form of criticism.

Forms