squeeze box

squeeze +‎ box.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskwiːzbɒks/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskwizbɑks/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

squeeze box (plural squeeze boxes)

1. (caving) A box with an adjustable opening used by cavers to practise crawling through tight spaces.
   • 1998 July, Andrew Todhunter, “Dark Passage: Descending into the Depths of California’s Longest Known Cave”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 282, number 1, archived from the original on 21 September 2015, pages 90–94; reprinted in Dangerous Games: Ice Climbing, Storm Kayaking, and other Adventures from the Extreme Edge of Sports, 1st Anchor Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, Random House, November 2001, →ISBN, pages 61–62:

     At caving conventions aboveground, cavers often squirrel themselves through adjustable wooden "squeeze boxes" in good-natured competitions. In the safety of this controlled setting, cavers may push their capacities far beyond what they might hazard underground; […] A very slender woman's tightest squeeze may be defined by the width of her skull turned sideways. Some women thus emerge from squeeze boxes, triumphant, with mirrored abrasions over their cheekbones.

   • 2003, Barbara Hurd, “The Squeeze”, in Entering the Stone: On Caves and Feeling through the Dark, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 11:

     The most notorious squeezes have names: the Gun Barrel, Jam Crack, the Electric Armpit Crawl, Devil's Pinch. You can even train for them by buying a product called a Squeeze Box. It's essentially a play torture chamber for cavers, a wooden box, about thirty by thirty inches, open on the two ends. You set it up in your living room, get down on your hands and knees, and crawl through it. No problem. But the box has adjustable sides and top. You loosen the bolts, lower the lid, slide the sides closer, crawl through again. […] Though a Squeeze Box may be good practice for learning how to squinch through small places, doing it on your living room carpet, […] just doesn't duplicate what causes the panic.

   • 2016, Diego Rodriguez, The Caver: Dig ... But Not to Far, Munich: BookRix, →ISBN:

     Prior to going back out to Mystery Cave again we spent a lot of time preparing. We made a squeeze box, which is a wooden box the opening of which can be adjusted in size. We could then crawl through the opening and measure to see how tight of a squeeze we could fit through.

2. (veterinary medicine) A container that fits tightly around an animal to immobilize it for medical treatment, transportation, etc.
   • 1963, Ann Cottrell Free, Forever the Wild Mare, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, OCLC 5285036:

     Jebby rushed to the area behind the mare's paddock. What he saw there filled him with fresh concern. Isabella was in the "squeeze box." This, he knew, was a strait jacket for animals! […] He had seen the old squeeze box sitting in the field behind the hoofed animals' paddock. Zoo keepers had used it in the days before the invention of the Tranquilizer Gun for immobilizing animals when they wanted to inoculate them or treat them for illness or injury. If the squeeze box were used unwisely, a Zoo keeper had told Jebby, an animal inside it could be squeezed almost to death. And it always caused panic as the wooden sides pressed against the trapped creature's body.

   • 2001, Pamela Tuomi, “Sea Otters”, in Leslie A. Dierauf and Frances M. D. Gulland, editors, CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine: Health, Disease, and Rehabilitation, 2nd edition, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 972:

     Williams and Sawyer (1995) reported on successful techniques used on a large number of otters in the rehabilitation centers during the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Restraint equipment included heavy leather welder's gloves with long sleeves, a large salmon dip net fitted with an elongated bag of soft 1-in. mesh net, a throw net, blankets, stuff bags, and some sort of squeeze box. […] The bag is quickly placed over the head, shoulders, and thorax, and the otter is held by pressing down on the bag. This is best accomplished while the otter is in the net or squeeze box with the animal on its back and the hind legs held by a second handler […].

   • 2012, Mercedes S. Foster, “Dealing with Live Reptiles”, in Roy W. McDiarmid [et al.], editors, Reptile Biodiversity: Standard Methods for Inventory and Monitoring, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 132:

     Snakes and beaded lizards can be measured effectively in a "squeeze box" (Quinn and Jones 1974). A squeeze box immobilizes an animal by pressing it between a transparent lid and a soft foam bottom. Squeeze boxes have diverse designs […], but basically, they are all modifications of the original described by Quinn and Jones (1974).

   • 2014, Darryl Heard, “Lagomorphs (Rabbits, Hares, and Pikas)”, in Gary [Don] West, Darryl [J.] Heard, and Nigel Caulkett, editors, Zoo Animal and Wildlife Immobilization and Anesthesia, 2nd edition, Ames, Iowa: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 879:

     Physical restraint devices (e.g., rabbit squeezeboxes and cat bags) are a useful adjunct to anesthesia, particularly in the induction period. Restrained rabbits quickly develop hyperthermia, however, especially when environmental temperatures are high. Physical restraint of free-living rabbits and hares should be minimal.

3. Alternative form of squeezebox (“musical instrument”).
4. Synonym of hug machine or hugbox.

• squeezebox