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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).
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verb (used with object)
  1. Digital Technology, Television. to display (a film or video) by using the letterbox technique.
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Origin of letterbox

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

Examples from the Web for letterbox

Historical Examples

  • 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.