to box clever

8.3

Act in a smart, careful way to gain an advantage

phrasal verb

: ser astuto

To win the competition, he had to box clever and outsmart all his opponents.

Examples

♪ Box clever -

Shock Treatment (1981)
In order to solve the puzzle quickly, they had to box clever and think outside the box.
She managed to box clever during the negotiations and secured a great deal for her company.

Synonyms

to play the fox

vsto box clever

8.8

Act in a clever, tricky way to fool others

is more about shrewd and resourceful action to gain advantage not dishonesty

Surface Forms

box clever infinitive

boxed clever past

boxed clever past participle

boxing clever present participle

boxes clever third person singular

Morphology

box + clever

The adjective 'clever' clearly signals shrewdness, so part of the meaning is visible, but 'box' does not contribute a literal sense (container or fighting) that directly yields 'behave shrewdly' in general use. Because the idiomatic coercion of 'box' here is not predictable from the constituent meanings, a B1 learner might guess a relation to cleverness but would not reliably infer the full idiomatic sense without prior exposure.

Etymology

Box clever may come from old boxing advice: instead of hitting hard, a fighter would box by moving and thinking, showing the clever side of fighting. So today, to box clever means 'to behave in a smart, careful way to get an advantage'.