icebox

C2+ Topic:Register & Style

US /ˈaɪsˌbɑks/ UK /ˈaɪsˌbɒks/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
an insulated cabinet cooled by ice; an early or informal term for a refrigerator

Grandma kept the butter cold in the old icebox.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an insulated cabinet cooled... refrigerator fridge coolercoolbox

Word family

Related forms ice box

Etymology

A compound of ice + box. Ice is from Old English is, from Proto-Germanic *isaz; box is from Old English box, from Latin buxus ('boxwood').

is Old English box Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

# icebox

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈaɪsˌbɑks
**IPA (UK):** ˈaɪsˌbɒks

## Meanings
1. an insulated cabinet cooled by ice; an early or informal term for a refrigerator

## Examples
- Grandma kept the butter cold in the old icebox.

## Synonyms
- refrigerator
- fridge
- cooler
- coolbox

## Related Forms
- ice
- box

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: is
- Root: box

## Etymology
A compound of ice + box. Ice is from Old English is, from Proto-Germanic *isaz; box is from Old English box, from Latin buxus ('boxwood').

## AI Etymology
icebox is a compound of ice + box. Ice is from Old English is, from Proto-Germanic *isaz; box is from Old English box, from Latin buxus ('boxwood'). Morphologically, the word is best read through the components named in the history, with the modern spelling preserving a compound structure rather than a single unanalyzable stem. In present English, the noun sense is "an insulated cabinet cooled by ice; an early or informal term for a refrigerator", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as ice and box. Its semantic neighborhood includes refrigerator, fridge, cooler, and coolbox, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Old English is and Old English box.

## Topics
- Register & Style
- General Vocabulary

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icebox

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