dropboxn.
/ˈdrɒpbɒks/, U.S. /ˈdrɑpˌbɑks/ 1. A container or receptacle into which items can be placed for transportation. Later: a secured container or receptacle into which items such as mail, returned books, keys, payments, ballot papers, etc., can be deposited and to which only authorized people have access.
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1797 Morning Post 28 Apr. A Rail'd chaise... The body lines with leather, plated heads, round body, and sham doors; patent wheels, dashing iron lamps, knee boot, drop box, &c.
1837 W. B. Adams Eng. Pleasure Carriages xv. 242 The dark portion under the seat represents a drop-box.
1885 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Daily Jrnl. 28 Sept. 1/6 The labels upon the dropboxes now at the postoffice will be changed from ‘East’, ‘West’ and ‘City’, to ‘South and East’, ‘North and West’ and ‘City’.
1953 Tripoli (Iowa) Leader 19 Nov. 3/1 The chairman is requesting the people to return their envelopes as soon as possible either to the dropbox..or directly to her through the mail.
1985 M. Shock Worthy Opponents i. 4 This here is your key... Leave it in the dropbox out front when you go.
2004 Wall St. Jrnl. 15 Nov. (Central ed.) r2/2 Each store also has a drop box for old cellphones, inkjet cartridges and rechargeable batteries.
2020 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 4 Nov. a5/3 Roughly 300 lawsuits over the election have already been filed in dozens of states. Legal battles ensued over signature matches, drop boxes and secrecy envelopes.
2. Weaving. In a loom: a casing holding multiple shuttles each of which is loaded with wefts of different colours. Cf. rising box n. at rising adj. Compounds 2. Now historical.The drop box has a mechanism allowing any section to be lowered to the working height of the loom and thereby allowing a particular shuttle to be loaded onto the loom without being manually selected.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > manufacture of textile fabric > [noun] > weaving > loom > other parts
studdlelOE
staff1338
trendle14..
trindle1483
cylinder?a1560
harness1572
mail1731
mounture1731
leaf1807
march1807
dropbox1823
neck-twine1827
mounting1835
shaft1839
Jack1848
selvage-protector1863
serpent1878
take-up motiona1884
swell1894
1823 R. Guest Compend. Hist. Cotton-manuf. ii. 9 In that year [sc. 1760] Mr. Robert Kay..invented the drop box, by means of which the weaver can at pleasure use any one of three shuttles, each containing a different coloured weft.
1900 Weekly Standard & Express (Blackburn) 13 Jan. 8/6 All these looms are fitted with drop-boxes.
1991 Mod. Asian Stud. 25 480 Replacing the throw-shuttle..in combination with other improvements such as the drop box and the warping mill, had lowered the costs of English handloom weavers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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n.1797