web.archive.org

letterbox

let·ter·box (lĕt'ər-bŏks')
n.

  1. See mailbox (sense 2).
  2. A format for presenting movies on television that maintains the rectangular theater image on a television screen by reducing the overall image until the full width can be seen, resulting in blank space above and below the image.

tr.v., -box·es, -box·ing, -boxed.
To produce or present (film) in a letterbox format.

logo The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.