sandbox - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
sandbox (plural sandboxes)
- (US, Canada) A children’s play area consisting of a box filled with sand.
- ✤ Synonym: sandpit
- ✤ Her children were playing in the sandbox.
- A box filled with sand that is shaped to form a mould for metal casting.
- A container for sand or pounce, used historically before blotting paper.
- An animal’s litter box.
- (rail transport) A box carried on locomotives, from which sand runs onto the rails in front of the driving wheels, to prevent slipping.
- ✤ For the most part they were small standard gauge 0-6-0 side tanks of the type illustrated, with long tapered chimneys and an unusual feature for the Continent in the shape of domeless boilers, the protuberance just behind the chimney being a sandbox.1
- (computing) An isolated area where a program can be executed with a restricted portion of the resources available.
- ✤ Running a program in a sandbox can prevent it from doing any damage to the system.
- (wiki jargon) A page on a wiki where users are free to experiment without destroying or damaging any legitimate content.
- (US, military, slang, usually “The Sandbox”) The Middle East.
Verb
sandbox (third-person singular simple present sandboxes, present participle sandboxing, simple past and past participle sandboxed)
- (computing, transitive) To restrict (a program, etc.) by placing it in a sandbox.
- ✤ Although you can use standard JavaScript and AJAX in sandboxed iframe pages to your heart’s content, the Facebook Platform places restrictions over the amount of scripting capabilities you can add to the more tightly integrated FBML pages.2
- (by extension, transitive, intransitive) To brainstorm; to prototype.
- ✤ Their team has been sandboxing some ideas recently.
Etymology
From sand + box.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈsænd.bɒks/
- (General American) IPA: /ˈsæn(d).bɑks/
- Audio (US): 🔊
- Hyphenation: sand‧box
Printed 2026-10-13.
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