Contextualizebeta

thunderbox

noun
/ˈθʌndəbɒks/UK/ˈθʌndɚˌbɑks/US

Etymology

Probably a calque of German Donnerbüchse (“(archaic) blunderbuss; cannon”) (from Donner (“thunder”) + Büchse (“box; can; rifle”)), or its etymon Dutch donderbus (“blunderbuss”) (from donder (“thunder”) + bus (“box; container; (chiefly historical) type of early modern firearm”)).

  1. derived from Boxenstopp
  2. derived from pyxis
  3. derived from buxis
  4. inherited from *buhsā✻
  5. inherited from box
  6. inherited from box — “container, box, cup”
  7. compounded as thunderbox — “thunder + box”

Definitions

  1. A chamber pot enclosed in a box

    A chamber pot enclosed in a box; a portable commode.

    • True, our cash would run out, but Charleton wouldn't let us starve. He'd put us into shorts, and we should wash the dishes and clean the thunder-boxes and take out guests for walks.
    • [T]he response would sound from some soldier unseen, perhaps astride a thunderbox in the ablutions.

  2. Any lavatory or toilet, especially a rudimentary outdoor latrine or toilet, or an…

    Any lavatory or toilet, especially a rudimentary outdoor latrine or toilet, or an outhouse.

    • Meantime the ICE [Institute of Consumer Ergonomics] experts are poring over their photographs, and making measurements, which, presumably, will go into a computer, and out will come the specification for the perfect thunderbox.
    • In the old days, when there was a corrugated iron thunderbox, the Holts' guests were told to approach it with caution: where other thunderboxes had redback spiders, the local ones tended to have taipans.
    • It's an invaluable open-sided box with no bottom and a hole in the top. Perch this over a hole in the ground and voila! you have a thunder box. Comfy to sit on and handsome as well.

  3. A box of metal balls which is shaken to create a thunder sound effect.

    • [T]wo articles, both indispensibly necessary to a theatre, are not blundered, viz. a property room, and thunder box!—no they are omitted altogether!!
    • [H]e [the English actor West Digges] said, "Take the child to the slips;" and I was led through the carpenter's gallery, the cloudings and thunder boxes, and placed in a good seat, where I saw the play with great delight.
    • It was what is called a good passage, and a feather in the Casco’s cap; but among the most miserable forty hours that any one of us had ever passed. We were swung and tossed together all that time like shot in a stage thunder-box.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. A blunderbuss

      A blunderbuss; also, a cannon.

      • In the year 1346, at the battle of Crecy, the engliſh uſed a ſort of cannons, which were then called thunder-boxes.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for thunderbox. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA