boxfish

American

[boks-fish] / ˈbɒksˌfɪʃ /

noun

trunkfish.

boxfish British

/ ˈbɒksˌfɪʃ /

noun

another name for trunkfish

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of boxfish

First recorded in 1830–40; box ¹ + fish

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

boxfish

Nature has no shortage of patterns, from spots on leopards to stripes on zebras and hexagons on boxfish.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2023

A sleeping boxfish draped like a noodle over a coral branch.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 21, 2019

After much searching, the company looked to the boxfish, a small, tropical coral reef fish, as a model.

From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2015

But how, then, does the boxfish manage to swim at all?

From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2015

Both species of boxfish produced at least twice as much drag as more conventional, “fish-shaped” fish.

From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2015

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023