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litter box

litter box

18 1.8
A box with soft material that cats use to pee and poo indoors
  • noun
  • /ˈlɪtər bɑks/
  • US
translation icon : arenero
  • My cat always uses the litter box when she needs to go to the bathroom.
  • a cat litter box
  • clean the litter box
  • a kitty litter box

I believe that almost all litter box problems come down to two things.

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Examples

  • I think I forgot to empty Gary's litter box today.

  • The Burns household has no litter box.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • I believe that almost all litter box problems come down to two things.

  • How many times have I told you to use the litter box?

  • We use a litter box.

  • I kept a litter box in the back, and she was good about using it.

    Blog text (1)
  • The best thing you can do for this cat is to get a litter box and bring the cat inside.

    Blog text (8)
  • I clean the litter boxes every day.

  • I'm going to need a bigger litter box.

  • The reason I started this site was to help cat owners find solutions to their litter box woes.

    Blog text (31)

Synonyms

cat box
vslitter box
  • US
2 1.0

A box filled with litter that a cat uses as a toilet indoors

is the neutral general term for that container used by pets indoors

How Private

litter box
  • US
18 1.8
tray
311 1.0

Surface Forms

litter box singular
litter boxes plural

Morphology

litter + box

The meaning is directly compositional: 'litter' (absorbent animal bedding or material) + 'box' (container) yields a 'box for litter' used by pets. This literal compound follows common noun+noun compounding patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

The noun litter box comes from the simple picture of a box filled with litter, soft material that soaks up waste. Cats use the box as their indoor 'toilet', so the phrase means a container where pets go to pee and poop.