Post-Office box
7
3.1
- noun
- /ˈpoʊstˌɔfɪs bɑks/
:
apartado de correos
- She collects her mail from the post office box every Saturday afternoon.
- post-office box address
- rented a post-office box
- post office box number
Examples
-
Those letters were written to Evie in care of a different post office box.
Fiction book (1995) -
If you want to remain anonymous, you can receive your packages at a post office box instead of your home address.
-
I could write her in care of a post office box in London.
-
There was no phone number, street address, post office box, or email address.
Fiction book (2002) -
His post office box payments are past due.
-
If you need anything, write to me at the post office box in Philadelphia.
-
I found a joker card in my post office box.
-
Just to be safe, though, I rented a post office box at the local substation.
Fiction book (1997) -
The correspondence was sent to the post office box of an agent in Manhattan named Norman Quimby.
Fiction book (1995) -
Well, you mail it to our P.O. box in Iowa in a prepaid envelope.
Synonyms
7
3.4
A numbered box at a post office where you receive and 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
A numbered box in a post office where a person collects their mail
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
Post-Office + box
The meaning is directly derivable from the parts: a 'box' associated with the 'post office' used for receiving mail. This is a transparent noun-compound pattern with clear cross-linguistic equivalents (e.g., postfach, boîte postale), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily understand it.
Etymology
Post-Office box is a very literal name: it started as a small rented box inside the local post office, with a number and key so a person's mail would wait there until they could 'collect' it. That's why it means a numbered box at the post office used 'to receive mail'.