Also 4–5 boxe. [ME. box: of unknown origin; perh. related to an OTeut. *boki-, whence MDu. bōke, böke, early mod.Du. beuk, MHG. buc blow, stroke, MDu. bōken, MHG. bochen to strike, slap; but in this case the formation remains unexplained. It has also been compared with Da. bask blow, stripe, but no intermed. links have been found. (More probably, it is of native English origin; it may be an onomatopæia, or have arisen from some fig. or playful use of BOX sb.2 (Mahn compares Gr. πύξ ‘with clenched fist,’ which might have been to the purpose if ‘box’ had begun as school slang.)]
† 1. A blow; a buffet. Obs. exc. as in 2.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1388. Hadde in armys manye a blode box [v.r. boxe].
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth. (Roxb.), 93. With his burlyche brande a box he hyme reches.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1076. To giue one a boxe or blowe with the fist.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, III. App. lxv. The Shrow him beat with buffes and boxes.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, II. v. 136. The bird … gave me so many boxes with his wings on both sides of my head and body … that [etc.].
2. spec. A blow on the ear or side of the head with the hand; a slap, a cuff.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46. Box or buffett, alapa.
1589. (title) Pappe with an Hatchet … Or a Countrie cuffe, that is a sound boxe of the eare for the idiot Martin to hold his peace.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 64. My owne mother gaue I a boxe on the eare too.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. vii. 133. To take him a boxe a’th ere.
1601. Sherley’s Trav. (1863), 9. Sir Anthonies brother gaue the captaine a sound boxe.
1676. D’Urfey, Mad. Fickle, II. i. (1677), 11. A Box oth’ Ear for a Prologue, you know.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 357, ¶ 35. Gave Ralph a box on the Ear.
1876. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 3. 363. She [Elizabeth] met the insolence of Essex with a box on the ear.
