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.
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shadow box
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shadow-box
shadow-boxverbboxing to practise blows and footwork against an imaginary opponent
shadow box
Americannoun
shadow-box
British
verb
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boxing to practise blows and footwork against an imaginary opponent
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to act or speak unconvincingly, without saying what one means, etc
he's just shadow-boxing
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of shadow box
First recorded in 1905–10
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:
“They were beautiful and funny and fascinating,” Saar says of Cornell’s shadow box assemblages, many of which were made of repurposed junk.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2024
All the while, Ryder continued to shadow box and wait patiently.
From BBC ● May 7, 2023
The photos sit in a sort of shadow box with the glass covering looking almost as if it has been pressed outward and fractured.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
The hat is now displayed in Ruberg’s home in a shadow box frame, along with a pregnancy test, hospital bracelets, a sonogram image and other newborn paraphernalia.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 2, 2021
The big stones formed a sort of shadow box, causing the markings to appear in bold relief.
From Tom Slade on Mystery Trail by R. Emmett (Robert Emmett) Owen
He begins to shadow-box, as if in Brooklyn rather than Bricket Wood.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 9, 2017
“Pavlova’s Dawg” also functions as a fine pivot between Vincent Fecteau’s shadow-box collage and Charles Ray’s stack of bricks lashed with a thick rope to a well-used sawhorse.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2016
Elad Lassry puts together studio set-ups, of eggs, fruit and existing photographs, and completes his Pop version of Joseph Cornellian neatness by encasing the final picture in a shadow-box frame.
From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2015
An appraiser sized it up as folk art by Joseph Cornell, one of his famed shadow-box displays, and worth up to $150,000 at auction if authenticated.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 1, 2013
I could not shadow-box in front of the narrow long mirror at first because it looked so strange to see a man with a beard boxing.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
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