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definitions

letterbox

[let-er-boks]
See more synonyms for letterbox on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Also letter box. Chiefly British. a public or private mailbox.
  2. Digital Technology, Television. a technique for displaying a wide-screen film or landscape video on a narrower screen by reducing its size but retaining the aspect ratio, with black bands filling the screen above and below the picture (often used attributively):letterbox videos.Compare pan and scan, pillarbox(def 1).
verb (used with object)
  1. Digital Technology, Television. to display (a film or video) by using the letterbox technique.

Origin of letterbox

First recorded in 1765–75; letter1 + box1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for letterbox

letterbox, mailbox, postbox

Examples from the Web for letterbox

Historical Examples of letterbox

  • There must be a rural delivery, and if so, at the gate would be a letterbox.

    The Rest Hollow Mystery

    Rebecca N. Porter

  • Putting pieces of folded brown paper in the letterbox for her.

    Ulysses

    James Joyce

  • There was a letterbox at the corner, a foot from the older man's shoulder.

    The Lifted Bandage

    Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

  • The lid flew back, and we pressed forward, and each ran his hand down into the letterbox.

    In the Fog

    Richard Harding Davis

  • That letter he dropped into the Pixley letterbox himself that night, and so was assured of its delivery.