4. (Arch.) The external case of thin material used to bring any member to a required form.
Box"ing, n. The act of fighting with the fist; a combat with the fist; sparring. Blackstone.
Boxing glove, a large padded mitten or glove used in sparring for exercise or amusement.
Box"-i`ron (&?;), n. A hollow smoothing iron containing a heater within.
Box"keep`er (&?;), n. An attendant at a theater who has charge of the boxes.
Box"thorn` (&?;), n. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Lycium, esp. Lycium barbarum.
Box"wood` (&?;), n. The wood of the box (Buxus).
Boy (&?;), n. [Cf. D. boef, Fries. boi, boy; akin to G. bube, Icel. bofi rouge.] A male child, from birth to the age of puberty; a lad; hence, a son.
My only boy fell by the side of great Dundee.
Sir W. Scott.
Boy is often used as a term of comradeship, as in college, or in the army or navy. In the plural used colloquially of members of an associaton, fraternity, or party.
Boy bishop, a boy (usually a chorister) elected bishop, in old Christian sports, and invested with robes and other insignia. He practiced a kind of mimicry of the ceremonies in which the bishop usually officiated. -- The Old Boy, the Devil. [Slang] -- Yellow boys, guineas. [Slang, Eng.] -- Boy's love, a popular English name of Southernwood (Artemisia abrotonum); -- called also lad's love. -- Boy's play, childish amusements; anything trifling.
Boy, v. t. To act as a boy; -- in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage.
I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness.
Shak.
{ Bo*yar" (&?;), Bo*yard" (&?;), } n. [Russ. boiárin'.] A member of a Russian aristocratic order abolished by Peter the Great. Also, one of a privileged class in Roumania.
English writers sometimes call Russian landed proprietors boyars.
||Boy"au (&?;), n.; pl. Boyaux or Boyaus (&?;). [F. boyau gut, a long and narrow place, and (of trenches) a branch. See Bowel.] (Fort.) A winding or zigzag trench forming a path or communication from one siegework to another, to a magazine, etc.
Boy"cott` (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Boycotted; p. pr. & vb. n. Boycotting.] [From Captain Boycott, a land agent in Mayo, Ireland, so treated in 1880.] To combine against (a landlord, tradesman, employer, or other person), to withhold social or business relations from him, and to deter others from holding such relations; to subject to a boycott.
Boy"cott, n. The process, fact, or pressure of boycotting; a combining to withhold or prevent dealing or social intercourse with a tradesman, employer, etc.; social and business interdiction for the purpose of coercion.
Boy"cott`er (&?;), n. A participant in boycotting.
Boy"cott*ism (&?;), n. Methods of boycotters.