shit box
- noun
- /ʃɪt bɑks/
- Offensive
- After years of neglect, my apartment has turned into a shit box.
Examples
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How do you think she's gonna like riding around Providence in this shit box?
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This old car is such a shit box that it breaks down every week.
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So my van, like I said, shit box and it's a shit box.
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Time to jump out of this shit box.
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It's your last night in this shit box.
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Let's get out of this shit box.
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This shit box is gross!
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No wonder they don't want to sleep in our shit box.
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I can't believe they stored it all in that shit box of a bank.
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I should start you guys off with a new set of wheels first... unless you're cool riding around in the same rusted old shit box... you've had since the 10th grade.
Synonyms
A place where people leave large amounts of rubbish
A very dirty, messy pile of trash and broken things
A large open area where people leave trash
Something in very bad condition and nearly falling apart
A poor-quality thing that does not work well
Antonyms
How Bad
Surface Forms
Morphology
shit + box
The sense 'a very poor or worthless thing/place' follows directly from combining 'shit' (vulgar marker of worthlessness or poor quality) with 'box' (a concrete object or, by extension, a thing/place). This modifier+noun composition is a regular, predictable pattern in English, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the derogatory meaning even if they haven't seen this exact phrase before.
Etymology
The expression shit box comes from the image of a small box full of shit, something dirty and worthless. So when people call a car or a home a shit box, they mean it's 'very bad' or 'rundown'.