Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The box provided for the bruised or condemned types of a printing-house.
Etymologies
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Examples
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On the occasion of the death of a certain tramp printer, whose name is now lost to us in the hell-box of time, no clergyman being found to perform the service, Henry George officiated, and preached a sermon which rang through the city like a trumpet-call, extolling not what the man was, but what he might have been.
Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 1916
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If a man should write a book and in it make one of his characters say, "Here, devil, empty the quoins into the standing galley and the imposing stone into the hell-box; assemble the comps around the frisket and let them jeff for takes and be quick about it," I should recognize a mistake or two in the phrasing, and would know that the writer was only a printer theoretically, not practically.
Is Shakespeare Dead? 1909
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In printing-offices the broken, worn-out, and useless type is thrown into the hell-box, to be recast at the foundry. [back]
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On the occasion of the death of a certain tramp printer, whose name is now lost to us in the hell-box of time, no clergyman being found to perform the service, Henry George officiated, and preached a sermon which rang through the city like a trumpet-call, extolling not what the man was, but what he might have been.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 09 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers Elbert Hubbard 1885
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"Here, devil, empty the quoins into the standing galley and the imposing-stone into the hell-box; assemble the comps around the frisket and let them jeff for takes and be quick about it," I should recognize a mistake or two in the phrasing, and would know that the writer was only a printer theoretically, not practically.
What Is Man? and Other Essays Mark Twain 1872
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"Here, devil, empty the quoins into the standing galley and the imposing stone into the hell-box; assemble the comps around the frisket and let them jeff for takes and be quick about it," I should recognize a mistake or two in the phrasing, and would know that the writer was only a printer theoretically, not practically.
Is Shakespeare Dead? from my autobiography Mark Twain 1872
hernesheir commented on the word hell-box
One encounters all types in a printing-house. The bruised and condemned are consigned to the hell-box.
January 6, 2012