saltbox
Appearance
See also: salt box
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]saltbox (plural saltboxes)
- A box for keeping salt in.
- A similar box formerly used as a percussion instrument in burlesque music.
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
- [O]ne who had heard without seeing the application, would have mistaken the sound for that of a salt-box, in the hand of a dext'rous Merry Andrew, belonging to one of the booths at Bartholomew Fair.
- (US) A distinctively shaped wooden-frame house with two stories at the front and one behind, characteristic of New England.
- 2007 March 9, Wendy Knight, “A Town That’s Still Down to Earth in a Highflying Ski Region”, in New York Times[1]:
- Rather than build new homes, weekenders are renovating existing homes, with saltboxes and capes predominant.
- A roof where one side slopes farther down than the other.
- (UK, slang, historical) The cell in Newgate prison for a prisoner condemned to death.
- Heather Herrman, The Corpse Queen, in 2017, Dark Screams (volume 6)
- “I think I'd rather languish in the Salt Box at Newgate Prison wearing the Devil's Claws than to be married to that tree,” Kierney said.
- 2018, Charles Palliser, The Quincunx: The Clothiers:
- As expected, Peg was indeed cast for death and was moved to the 'salt box' (the condemned cell) in the Press-yard to be near the New Drop.
- Heather Herrman, The Corpse Queen, in 2017, Dark Screams (volume 6)
Translations
[edit]a box for keeping salt in
References
[edit]- (condemned cell at Newgate): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary