This week’s theme
Words with many meanings

This week’s words
dobber
bruit
cameo
pillbox
plight

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PIL-boks)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A small container for pills.
2. A small fortified enclosure, used for firing weapons, observing, etc.
3. A small brimless hat with a flat top and straight sides.
4. Something small or ineffectual.

ETYMOLOGY:

From pill, from Latin pilula (little ball), from pila (ball) + box, from Old English, from Latin buxis, from pyxis (boxwood box), from Greek pyxis, from pyxos (box tree). Earliest documented use: 1702.

USAGE:

“A few yards from a Czech Army pillbox built as a defense against Nazi Germany, the archaeologists discovered a cattle bone.”
Andrew Higgins; Slavs and Germans Weren’t Always Rivals, Rune Finding Suggests; The New York Times; May 16, 2021.

“Honey touched the pillbox sitting on top of her head, still there covering her blond hair’s dark roots.”
Elmore Leonard; Up in Honey’s Room; William Morrow; 2007.

“We do not buy the line that it was just a pillbox thrown by some kids. The damage was too extensive.”
Manila Bombings Must Be Solved; The Filipino Express (Jersey City, New Jersey); Jun 4, 2000.

See more usage examples of pillbox in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: