Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A (small house or tower in which railway-signals are worked.
  • noun The alarm-box of a police or fire-alarm system, or the like, usually affording a connection with a pneumatic or electric system.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • All manner of cross-lines of rails came zig-zagging into it, like a Congress of iron vipers; and, a little way out of it, a pointsman in an elevated signal-box was constantly going through the motions of drawing immense quantities of beer at a public-house bar.

    The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices 2007

  • The pointsman aloft in the signal-box made the motions of drawing, with some difficulty, hogsheads of beer.

    The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices 2007

  • I saw through the steamy window huge electric fights glaring down from tall masts upon a fog, saw rows of stationary empty carriages passing by, and then a signal-box hoisting its constellation of green and red into the murky London twilight, marched after them.

    The Door in the Wall, and other stories Herbert George 2006

  • A little railway station, a string of loaded trucks, a signal-box, and the back of a cottage, shot by the carriage window, and a bridge passed with a clap of noise, echoing the tumult of the train.

    The Door in the Wall, and other stories Herbert George 2006

  • I saw through the steamy window huge electric lights glaring down from tall masts upon a fog, saw rows of stationary empty carriages passing by, and then a signal-box, hoisting its constellation of green and red into the murky London twilight marched after them.

    Twelve Stories and a Dream, by H. G. Wells Herbert George 2006

  • Then, struck with a sudden idea, I left her and turned to a machine from which projected a lever not unlike those in a signal-box.

    The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells Herbert George 2006

  • A little railway station, a string of loaded trucks, a signal-box, and the back of a cottage, shot by the carriage window, and a bridge passed with a clap of noise, echoing the tumult of the train.

    Twelve Stories and a Dream, by H. G. Wells Herbert George 2006

  • I only slackened my pace when I reached the green light, where I saw a dark signal-box, and near it on the embankment the figure of a man, probably the signalman.

    The Schoolmistress and other stories 2004

  • Mr. Shovelin went to a corner of the room, which might be called his signal-box, having a little row of port-holes like a toy frigate or accordion, and there he made sounds which brought steps very promptly, one clerk carrying a mighty ledger, and the other a small strong-box.

    Erema Richard Doddridge 2004

  • The chamber was rather curiously like a signal-box on some suburban railway line.

    The Vesuvius Club Mark Gatiss 2004

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