Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Jump to:
  • shadow box
    shadow box
    noun
    a shallow, rectangular frame fronted with a glass panel, used to show and at the same time protect items on display, as paintings, coins, or jewelry.
  • shadow-box
    shadow-box
    verb
    boxing to practise blows and footwork against an imaginary opponent

shadow box

American  

noun

  1. a shallow, rectangular frame fronted with a glass panel, used to show and at the same time protect items on display, as paintings, coins, or jewelry.

shadow-box British  

verb

  1. boxing to practise blows and footwork against an imaginary opponent

  2. to act or speak unconvincingly, without saying what one means, etc

    he's just shadow-boxing
"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

Etymology

Origin of shadow box

First recorded in 1905–10

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.