stuffing box

American  

noun

Machinery.

1. a device for preventing leakage of gases or liquids along a moving rod or shaft at the point at which it leaves a cylinder, tank, ship hull, etc.

---

stuffing box British  

noun

1. Also called: packing box.  a small chamber in which an annular packing is compressed around a reciprocating or rotating rod or shaft to form a seal

---

Etymology

Origin of stuffing box

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

Several showed election officials stuffing boxes with ballot papers.

From BBC

But don’t sit in corner stuffing boxes of food for the homeless.

From The Wall Street Journal

No stuffing box is therefore required, there being only atmospheric pressure on each side of it.

From Project Gutenberg

A large gear pump is located in the lowest point of the oil sump, and being submerged at all times with oil, does away with troublesome stuffing boxes and check valves.

From Project Gutenberg

A vertically arranged hard-rubber pipe passes though a hard rubber stuffing box in the bottom of the tank and has one or more orifices near its upper end.

From Project Gutenberg