box (redirected from boxes the compass)

box, common name for the Buxaceae, a family of trees and shrubs with leathery evergreen leaves, native to the tropics and subtropics of the Old World and to Central America. The boxes (genus Buxus) have been widely introduced to other regions for use as hedge plants and for their wood. Boxwood is close-grained, strong and hard, and polishes well; it is valued for wood engraving, carving, and turning, and for making musical instruments. Pachysandra procumbens, a native American species of an otherwise Asian genus, is a low, creeping herb found in the S Appalachians and cultivated elsewhere as a ground cover. The box family is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Euphorbiales.

---

box

In botany, an evergreen shrub or small tree (genus Buxus) of the box family (Buxaceae), best known for the ornamental and useful boxwoods. The family comprises seven genera of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, native to North America, Europe, North Africa, and Asia. The plants bear male and female flowers, without petals, on separate plants. The leathery, evergreen leaves are simple and alternate. Fruits are one- or two-seeded capsules or drupes. Three species of the genus Buxus provide the widely grown boxwood: the common, or English, box (B. sempervirens), used for hedges, borders, and topiary figures; the Japanese box (B. microphylla); and the tall boxwood tree (B. balearica).

---

box

(1) See set-top box and search box.

(2) Slang for computer. The term typically refers to a personal computer in a desktop or tower case. For example, the phrase "that's a nice Windows box" simply means a "fully equipped or well-made computer running the Windows operating system."

---

box¹

1. a separate compartment in a public place for a small group of people, as in a theatre or certain restaurants

2. an enclosure within a courtroom

3. a compartment for a horse in a stable or a vehicle

4. Brit a small country house occupied by sportsmen when following a field sport, esp shooting

5. 

a. a protective housing for machinery or mechanical parts

b. the contents of such a box

c. (in combination): a gearbox

6. the central part of a computer or the casing enclosing it

7. short for penalty box

8. Baseball either of the designated areas for the batter or the pitcher

9. the raised seat on which the driver sits in a horse-drawn coach

---

box²

1. a dense slow-growing evergreen tree or shrub of the genus Buxus, esp B. sempervirens, which has small shiny leaves and is used for hedges, borders, and garden mazes: family Buxaceae

2. the wood of this tree

3. any of several trees the timber or foliage of which resembles this tree, esp various species of Eucalyptus with rough bark

---

box [bäks]

(design engineering)

boxing

(engineering)

A protective covering or housing.

---

(computer)

box - 1. A computer; especially in the construction "foo box" where foo is some functional qualifier, like "graphics", or the name of an operating system (thus, "Unix box", "MS-DOS box", etc.) "We preprocess the data on Unix boxes before handing it up to the mainframe." The plural "boxen" is sometimes seen. 2. Without qualification in an IBM SNA site, "box" refers specifically to an IBM front-end processor.