Englishbox someone in
Meaning: To trap someone, physically or in a situation, leaving no room to maneuver.
Example: “Parked cars boxed us in, and we couldn't leave until midnight.”
Origin: Built on the plain, literal sense of "boxed" — enclosed on every side, the way an object placed inside a box has no room to move — a sense documented in English since the 1490s. Applied to a person or a vehicle, being "boxed in" describes exactly that kind of physical confinement: hemmed in on all sides by other people, cars, or obstacles, with no clear direction left open to move through. The figurative extension, feeling boxed in by circumstances, expectations, or a lack of options, follows the same logic without needing any more specialized source.
More English idioms
- bring the house down To be a great success.
- butt in To interrupt or interfere; to push in.
- buy something for a song To buy something very cheaply.
- by hook or by crook By one way or another; by any means possible.
- go by the book Operate according to the rules.
- do something by the seat of one's pants To accomplish something by luck and instinct rather than skill.
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Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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