jam box
- noun
- /dʒæm bɑks/
- Informal
:
boombox
- He set up the jam box in his backyard for the summer barbecue.
Examples
-
Yes, and it replaces the old jam box, which was the portable speaker and still an excellent speaker.
-
One of them is holding a jam box.
Fiction book (1996) -
This is the audio-visual jam box.
-
They brought a jam box to the beach so we could dance to our favorite songs.
-
At the party, everyone enjoyed the music coming from the jam box in the corner.
Synonyms
19
3.1
A portable music system with speakers that plays music loudly
4
3.5
A portable music player with speakers used to play loud music in public places
1
7.7
A large portable stereo used to play loud music in public
Antonyms
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is partially predictable: 'jam' (a song) + 'box' (a container/device) suggests a device related to music — plausibly something that plays 'jams'. However, 'jam box' is informal/slang and the leap from 'box for songs' to a portable loud stereo requires cultural/usage knowledge rather than pure compositional logic, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents may not reliably infer the exact meaning.
Etymology
Jam box likely comes from jam, meaning a casual music session, and box, the chunky shape of early portable music players. People often brought a loud, box-shaped player to these jams, so jam box came to mean a 'portable stereo' that plays music loudly.