treasure chest
11
3.0
- noun
- /ˈtrɛʒər tʃɛst/
:
cofre del tesoro
- We leaned in from our bar stools as if Gilberto had just opened a treasure chest.
Examples
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While exploring the island, we discovered an old treasure chest filled with gold coins and jewels.
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I saw this TikTok where it said, if you guys have little kids, prepare a treasure chest for them one day to discover, make it now and go bury it.
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Dude, I think we just found a treasure chest!
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And I could just see a treasure chest.
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Well, who leaves their gold just lying out in an open treasure chest?
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Captain Hook hid all his "pieces of eight" in a treasure chest.
Academic text (1998) -
Here they are in the photo above, guarding the treasure chest.
Blog text (25) -
With one of the jewels from the treasure chest, they bought food and laid out a feast.
Fiction book (1998) -
In fact, skeletons have been found buried with treasure chests.
Fiction book (1997) -
Finally, I managed to have a look inside, and like a kid pawing through a treasure chest, I pulled out the bedding and tablecloths into a pile around me.
Fiction book (1994)
Synonyms
How Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a box for valuables' is directly and compositionally derived from 'treasure' (valuable items) + 'chest' (a box or sturdy container). This noun–noun compound follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE’s meaning.
Etymology
Treasure chest comes from the real boxes sailors and pirates used to keep gold and jewels. Imagine a heavy wooden chest full of treasure that pirates locked and buried on an island, so it came to mean 'a large, strong box for valuable things'.