squeeze box

squeeze boxnoun/ˈskwiːzbɒks/

• 1

  informalentertainmentlifestylemusicAn accordion or concertina.

  • Mama's got a squeeze box she wears on her chest. / From when Daddy comes home, he never gets no rest. / Because she's playing all night, and the music's all right.
  • (Pause. peter picks up his squeeze box.) / peter I sing with this. / george A concertina. / peter No, it's a squeeze box. Can you play it? / george I love music, but can't play a thing.
• 2

  cavinghobbieslifestyleA box with an adjustable opening used by cavers to practise crawling through tight spaces.

  • 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.
  • 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.
• 3

  biologymedicinenatural-sciencesA container that fits tightly around an animal to immobilize it for medical treatment, transportation, etc.

  • 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.
  • 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[…].
• 4

  Synonym of hugbox (“a therapeutic device”).