red box

English

sense 2

Noun

red box (plural red boxes)

1. A phreaking device that generates tones to simulate the insertion of coins into a payphone, thus enabling the user to make illegitimate free calls.
3. (UK politics) A secure briefcase-like box used by ministers in the British government to carry their documents.

   Coordinate term: dispatch box

   • 2013 September 9, Ben Quinn, “No 10 denies David Cameron red box security breach”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Downing Street has rejected suggestions that David Cameron might have caused a security breach by briefly leaving his official ministerial red box unaccompanied on the table of a train carriage.

4. (US, military) A safe located at a nuclear installation containing launch codes.
5. (informal, US, meteorology) A "tornado watch" notification, indicating that conditions might lead to a tornado though none has yet been sighted.

   See also: severe thunderstorm watch

Coordinate terms

(colored boxes, especially electronic ones):

• beige box
• black box
• blue box
• brown box
• gray box
• green box
• orange box
• purple box
• red box
• silver box
• white box
• yellow box