noun

• 1A flight recorder in an aircraft.

  ‘The aircraft's black boxes could also hold the key to the accident.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Both black boxes from the hijacked aircraft have also been recovered.’
  • ‘The data recorder was one of the two black boxes aboard the flight.’
  • ‘They have found the so-called black boxes, or the flight data recorders, which are very crucial.’
  • ‘Remember, these dogs are used as ‘sniffer’ dogs for illegal drugs and to find black boxes after airline crashes.’

  1. 1.1informal A complex system or device whose internal workings are hidden or not readily understood.
     More example sentences

     • ‘Effectively a complex set of manual operations is automated, creating a black box for the end user with no wish to explore further.’
     • ‘Can't we just piece together all the black boxes knowing only their input/output specifications and achieve a working solution?’
     • ‘Even the best managers and most sophisticated thinkers start with the assumption that innovation is a mysterious black box.’
     • ‘Next, I needed to take the audio output from the camera and connect it to a mysterious black box that processes time code.’
     • ‘Specialized diagnostic equipment is a computerized black box these days.’
     • ‘And it makes everyone involved hold their breath, because it's a complete black box.’
     • ‘Unfortunately, these days universities turn out users who employ codes as black boxes but do not understand what they do or when their results can be trusted.’
     • ‘Instead, they decided to regard all search engines as black boxes, and concentrate on creating the most relevant content.’
     • ‘Perhaps draw him as a little black box of secrets, I mean he sure is mysterious enough to be a black box.’
     • ‘User stupidity will probably one day bring the black box to cars.’
     • ‘The black box determines how we translate complex information into decisions.’
     • ‘If American radiologists were put out of business because doctors could obtain MRI analysis more cheaply by using the imported Asian black boxes, then no tariff protection would be warranted.’
     • ‘So that's imagining the brain as something like a computer with inputs and outputs and a black box in between.’
     • ‘At your end, you will need a desktop computer or a networked group of desktop computers that can link to the black box.’
     • ‘We've taken an industry that basically operates in a black box, and we've created transparency.’
     • ‘Computer games are a sort of a black box, where players enter some input and get some output in return, based on rules they can't be sure of.’
     • ‘Well of course things like motor cars are black boxes, they're virtually computers on wheels.’
     • ‘I insert a small black box of electronics which takes the place of a key, press the starter button, and off we go.’
     • ‘As a magical black box, computers were portrayed as a source of hope amidst fear.’
     • ‘The current choice of TV addicts is still TiVo, the magic black box that records shows onto a hard drive.’