dice-box
The box from which dice are thrown in gaming, usually of the form of a double truncated cone.
| 1552 Huloet, Dice boxe, fimum, fritillum. 1617 Minsheu Ductor, A Dice box..a saucer, porringer, or some other such like dish, out of which they cast the dice. 1713 Addison Guardian No. 120 ¶1 Thumping the table with a dice-box. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 221 What was an hourglass once, Becomes a dicebox. 1833 H. Martineau Three Ages ii. 47 Charles and the Duke of Ormond were rattling the dice⁓box. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 50 Welcome at the palace when the bottle or the dicebox was going round. |
b. Used typically for dice-play, dicing, gaming.
| 1857 Maurice Ep. St. John xi. 179 The only resources left for either are the dice-box and the bottle. 1859 Macaulay Life Pitt, Fox, a man of pleasure, ruined by the dice-box and the turf. |
c. attrib. Of the form of a dice-box. dice-box insulator, a hollow porcelain insulator of this shape for supporting a telegraph wire, which passes through the axis.
| 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 296 A smaller lake..backed by a range of rocks and a rude dice-box tower. 1895 W. Preece (in letter), The ‘dice-box’ insulator was invented by the late Mr. C. P. Walker; it was used on the South-Eastern Railway. |