lick-box

noun

A gourmand; a glutton.

OriginFrench liche-casse →
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounlick-box (plural lick-boxes)

plural lick-boxes

  1. obsoleteA gourmand; a glutton.

    Their Eſtate and Condition of living is but only changed after a very ſtrange manner[…] Achilles, a ſcald-pated Maker of Hay-bundles;¶ Agamemnon, a Lick-box.¶ Ulysses, a Hay-mower.

    1738 [1534], Ozell, John, transl., chapter XXX, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, volume 2, translation of Gargantua by Rabelais, François, page 181

Origin

  1. Frenchliche-casse
  2. Englishlick-box

From lick + box. Possibly a calque of French liche-casse.

More words from French

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

lick-box. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lick-box

MLA

“lick-box.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lick-box. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lick-box,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lick-box.

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