pencil box

American  

noun

pencil boxes plural

1. a shallow covered box, usually of pasteboard, for holding pencils and crayons: used by children as an item of school equipment.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pencil boxes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pencil box

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pencil box

“If you come into a little bit of wealth, meaning if you got a new skirt or a new school outfit or a pencil box, automatically it was like, ‘Where did you get that from?’

From Washington Times ● Sep. 4, 2022

In what counts for a lull, Mr. Grams reached toward a pencil box and set to work, carefully charting the conditions of the nation’s midsection.

From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2019

Of course, you cannot easily justify placing an antique pencil box on your coat-and-bag-attracting chair; design can’t save us in all cases.

From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2014

He could see that the Frenchman was holding some paper, his pencil box, holding them on his lap as if he were sitting in a class.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 26, 2010

I took out the new schoolbag and pencil box I had bought for junior high school.

From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang