icebox

icebox — noun

1. a kitchen appliance that uses electricity to keep food and drinks cold so they s

1.nounB1
Definition

a kitchen appliance that uses electricity to keep food and drinks cold so they stay fresh

Example

Grandma still calls the refrigerator the icebox, even though it is electric.

dated term: 'still calls X the icebox'

Théo opened the icebox and found leftover pizza from last night.

Common collocations
  • old icebox
  • wooden icebox
  • electric icebox
  • icebox compartment
Synonyms
  • refrigerator

    the standard modern term; neutral in register

  • fridge

    informal equivalent of refrigerator, very common in speech

  • freezer

    a separate appliance or compartment kept below 0°C, not the same as an icebox/refrigerator

Usage Note

This noun is less common than refrigerator or fridge. It can sound old-fashioned or nostalgic, referring back to the wooden cabinets cooled by blocks of ice that were standard before electric refrigeration.

Common Mistakes

Please put the milk in the icebox.' (when speaking neutrally about a modern fridge).
Please put the milk in the refrigerator.
icebox may sound dated or unusual in everyday conversation outside of specific regional dialects.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All five refer to devices that keep things cold, but they differ in register, function, and scope. Refrigerator is the standard modern term for a kitchen appliance that keeps food at 2–5°C. Fridge is its informal equivalent, common in everyday British and American speech. Icebox is a dated synonym, originally a wooden cabinet cooled by actual blocks of ice; today it is used nostalgically or in older dialects. Freezer is a separate appliance (or compartment within a fridge) kept below 0°C for frozen goods. Cooler is broader, covering portable insulated containers (picnic coolers) and small electric drink chillers; it rarely refers to a full-size kitchen appliance. Use refrigerator or fridge in neutral modern writing; icebox only for historical or stylistic effect.

icebox ↗refrigerator ↗fridge ↗freezer ↗cooler

Common collocations

Nouns

  • icebox door
  • icebox drawer
  • icebox cake

Prepositions

  • in the icebox
  • out of the icebox

Etymology

English

Combines ice (frozen water) + box (container). First recorded in English in the 1830s, the term originally described a wooden chest lined with metal, into which blocks of ice were placed to keep food cold. Before electric refrigerators became common in the 1920s–1930s, iceboxes were standard in American homes, and the word survived for decades as a casual synonym for 'refrigerator' even after the old ice-cooled cabinets disappeared.