box kite
- noun
- /bɑks kaɪt/
- They were small, light ships that looked like ungainly box kites stripped of their fabric.
Examples
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In the distance, she saw a box kite soaring high in the sky.
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Mike's bringing a box kite he made at a workshop in the park.
-
Then the shape turned into a box kite.
Fiction book (2001) -
Somebody's got to service this box kite.
-
In the distance, she saw a box kite soaring high in the sky.
Fiction book (2002) -
A large man in a pressed khaki suit, who as he talks turns his hands like puffed biscuits on his knees, says to a thin woman in a shiny blue dress sitting next to him, "I remember how one spring all that boy did was carry a box kite around with him everywhere he went."
Fiction book (1990) -
Look, I found these kits to make box kites.
Synonyms
A light frame with paper or cloth that flies on a string
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a kite with a box-like structure' is directly derivable from combining 'box' (box-like) with 'kite' (a flying frame). This noun–noun compounding is transparently descriptive and common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Box kite comes from the kite's shape: the flying body is made like a small box with open ends rather than a flat sail, so it looks like a box in the air. That's why the name means a kite with a 'box-like' structure today.