box and cox

verb

To alternate with each other, often in the same post or location.

“They lived Box and Cox.”

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Meanings

box and cox1

verbbox and cox (third-person singular simple present boxes and coxes, present participle boxing and coxing, simple past and past participle boxed and coxed)

present singular third person boxes and coxes · participle present boxing and coxing · participle past boxed and coxed · past boxed and coxed · alternative box-and-cox · alternative Box-and-Cox

  1. UKambitransitiveTo alternate with each other, often in the same post or location.

    If any single production staked his claim to greatness it was John Barton’s 1973 RSC production of Richard II, in which Pasco and Ian Richardson boxed and coxed the roles of the King and Bolingbroke.

    2014 November 26, Richard Pasco – obituary, The Daily Telegraph
  2. UKambitransitiveTo alternate between two people.

    Although he meets von Humboldt by the end of the first chapter, it will take the whole book for there to be a meeting of minds between these two giants of the German intellect, with Kehlmann boxing and coxing between the two chapter by chapter.

    2007 April 14, Giles Foden, “The long and the short of it: Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann”, in The Guardian

Box and Cox2

proper nounBox and Cox pl (plural only)
  1. UKattributiveoftenpluralplural onlyTwo people who occupy the same post or location in an alternating arrangement.
adverbBox and Cox (not comparable)
  1. UKnot comparableOccupying the same post or location in an alternating arrangement.

    They lived Box and Cox.

Origin

box and cox · verb

From Box and Cox.

Full word history & related roots →

Box and Cox · proper noun, adverb

From the characters of the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton, in which an unscrupulous landlady rents a room to two men, one during the day and one at night.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

box and cox. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/box%20and%20cox

MLA

“box and cox.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/box%20and%20cox. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “box and cox,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/box%20and%20cox.

Source: box and cox on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.