boxcars

9.9

A roll of two sixes on two dice

noun
/ˈbɑksˌkɑrz/

Jargon

: doble seis

He rolled two boxcars in a row!

Examples

He cheered loudly when he rolled boxcars in the final round.
Rolling boxcars is considered both lucky and unlucky, depending on the game.
Every gambler hopes for boxcars when the stakes are high.
Did you see her roll boxcars last night?
In the last round, he rolled a total of 12, scoring two boxcars.
When playing Monopoly, landing on Boardwalk after rolling boxcars can change the game.
She cheered when her brother rolled boxcars to win the game.

Surface Forms

boxcar singular

boxcars plural

Morphology

boxcars = boxcar (opaque) = box + car + s

Although the form is transparently pluralized from 'boxcar', the dice meaning 'double six' is an idiomatic metaphor not predictable from the vehicle sense.

Etymology

The word boxcars comes from the American railroad word boxcar, meaning a 'freight car'. A popular image is that two sixes side by side look like two long freight cars, so rolling 'two sixes' became called 'boxcars', which is why the word now means a throw of 'double sixes'.