pillar box
- noun
- /ˈpɪlər bɒks/
- UK
:
buzón
- He walked to the nearest pillar box to send his birthday card to his grandmother.
Examples
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The bright red pillar box stood out against the grey street, inviting passersby to drop off their letters.
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In that moving pillar box?
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The pillar boxes are red.
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I had to lean against a pillar box.
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The old pillar box was a familiar sight on the corner, often filled with colorful mail from the neighborhood.
Synonyms
111
1.0
A box outside a home or on the street where mail is delivered
1
1.0
A public box where people put letters and mail to be collected
A public box where people put letters for the post to collect
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'pillar' (an upright column) with 'box' (a container): the compound denotes a box shaped like a pillar. This straightforward noun–noun composition describes form and function in a compositional way, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the referent (a pillar-shaped public box).
Etymology
Pillar box is named for how it looks: a tall, round pillar with a box for letters standing on the street where people post letters. That's why it means 'a public letter box'.