call box
- noun
- /kɔl bɑks/
- Archaic
:
apartado de correos
- He checked his call box every morning for new letters from overseas.
Examples
-
I need to check my mail at the call box.
-
When I moved to a new city, I rented a call box for my mail.
-
Only authorized staff are allowed access to each call box in the post office.
-
The post office has several call boxes for customers.
-
He checked his call box every morning for new letters from overseas.
-
When I moved to a new city, I rented a call box for my mail.
-
The post office has several call boxes for customers.
Synonyms
7
3.4
A numbered box at a post office where you receive and collect your mail
7
3.1
A numbered box at a post office where you collect your mail
A numbered box at a post office where you receive mail
A numbered box at a post office that people rent to receive mail
How Private
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun compound 'call box' transparently denotes a box used for making calls — combining 'call' (to contact by phone) with 'box' (a container) yields the intended function. This compositional pattern (a container for a specific purpose) is common cross-linguistically and follows regular English noun-compounding, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Call box (post office sense) may come from the idea of a small numbered box you would call at or visit when new mail arrived; people rented these boxes and checked them for letters, so the name came to mean 'a numbered compartment for mail'.