mite box

English

A mite box

Etymology

From (widow's) mite (“small donation”) + box.

Noun

mite box (plural mite boxes)

1. A box, especially in a church, into which small charitable donations for the needy may be placed; (now commonly) any of a number of cardboard boxes distributed for individual donations.
   • 1951, Eleanor Estes, Ginger Pye, published 2004, page 20:

     Even if there had been time for mite boxes they were not such a good idea after all, she corrected herself. […] It was not a neat and tidy mite box the way Beulah Ball's was; it was a dirty, torn, loose mite box, and so was Jerry's.

   • 2003, Carol Bonomo, Humble Pie: St. Benedict's Ladder of Humility, page 46:

     For us, Lent was about the mite boxes we were given in each Sunday school class through sixth grade.

   • 2005, Marty Toohey, Bronx Boy: A Memoir, page 76:

     Sister Vincetta, principal of St. Augustine's Elementary School, told us that the pennies in the mite box fed starving children all over China.

Synonyms

• (box for small donations): alms box, poor box

Anagrams

• time box, timebox