box lunch

American  

noun

1. a lunch or light meal packed in a cardboard box or similar container.

   Each student was given a box lunch to eat on the bus.

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Etymology

Origin of box lunch

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Gerald knew airline food was really expensive, so he brought a box lunch.

From Washington Post • Mar. 25, 2021

After an exhausting day visiting the memorials, a flight museum and Arlington cemetery, eating a box lunch on the bus and grabbing a dinner back at the airport, it was time to go home.

From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2019

Cost: Tour, $95; garden party, $125, catered box lunch at the Pekrul House, $20.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 8, 2018

A cheerful twentysomething in a Hellmann’s T-shirt passed me a box lunch containing a mayo-infused burger, mayo-smothered pasta salad, mayo-lubed corn on the cob, and a mayo-moistened cupcake.

From Slate • Dec. 27, 2013

Most of the kids follow Ms. Cherry into the pizza line, except Chin and I have box lunch.

From "Invisible Inkling" by Emily Jenkins