“Box and dice” is an Australian English expression meaning “everything”. It comes from dice games where the box and dice are the only equipment needed. It is a merism, a phrase where multiple parts of a whole serve as the image of the whole. It is not common in American or British English but is considered a distinctive Australianism.
“Box and dice” is an idiomatic English expression, most common in Australian English, meaning “everything”. It is usually part of a longer sentence, most commonly “the whole box and the dice”. The expression is one of many similar terms called merisms.
The phrase “the whole box and the dice” probably comes from dice games. In many of these games, players keep the dice in a small box or cup, often made of wood or leather, when not in use. In some games, the box or cup is actually part of the game. For example, in the “liar dice” game, players cover their dice with a box to hide the score value they have rolled.
In games of this type, the box and dice are the only pieces of equipment needed to play the game. To have them is therefore to have everything necessary for the game. This is the most likely origin for the use of this expression as a term for “the whole thing.”
There is a wide variety of similar expressions, many with similarly obscure origins. Examples include “the whole kit and caboodle”, “the whole shooting match”, “the whole megillah” and “the whole shebang”. Other expressions, such as “lock, butt and rod” or “hook, line and sinker” share the multipart structure of “the whole box and the dice”. These expressions are called merisms.
A merism is an expression in which multiple parts of a whole serve as the image of the whole. For example, the biblical phrase “heavens and earth” means all of creation, while “up and down” or “up and down” are alternative ways of saying “everywhere.” Likewise, the box and the dice, which are the pieces of equipment for dice games, serve by analogy to describe the whole of whatever is being discussed. Like most merisms, the word order is never reversed: the expression is always “the whole box and the dice”, never, for example, “the whole box and the dice”.
The phrase is not common in either American or British English. It is, however, common enough in Australian English that it is often identified as a distinctive Australianism. It first appeared as an Australian slang term in the 1930s but may have been in use for some time before being recorded. Due to its identification with Australian English, it is also the name of an Australian wine and the title of at least one Australian memoir.
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