pyx

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Ecclesiastical A container in which wafers for the Eucharist are kept.
2. n. Ecclesiastical A container in which the Eucharist is carried to the sick.
3. n. A chest in a mint in which specimen coins are placed to await assay.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In the Roman Catholic Church, the vase or vessel in which the reserved eucharist is kept. The name pyx (pyxis) for this vessel seems to have come into use in the ninth century. In earlier times the reserved sacrament was kept in an arca, columba, or turris (see reservation). In the Greek Church the vessel in which the sacrament is reserved is called the artophorion, pyxion, or pyxis. The pyx has also been used for unconsecrated altar-breads. It has generally been made cylindrical in shape, with a foot like that of a chalice, and has sometimes had a conical cover. In modern usage it is much smaller than formerly, and is often made round and flat like a watch-case, for convenience, especially in carrying the sacrament to the sick. For public exposition of the sacrament a monstrance or ostensory is used instead.
2. n. A box or chest in which specimen coins are deposited at the British mint.
3. n. Nautical, the metallic box in which the nautical compass-card is suspended.
4. n. In anatomy, the acetabulum of the hip-bone; the cotyloid cavity; the pyxis.
5. To test by weight and assay, as the coins deposited in the pyx at the British mint. See trial of the pyx, above.

Wiktionary

1. n. the small container used to hold the consecrated bread of the Eucharist

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The box, case, vase, or tabernacle, in which the host is reserved.
2. n. A box used in the British mint as a place of deposit for certain sample coins taken for a trial of the weight and fineness of metal before it is sent from the mint.
3. n. The box in which the compass is suspended; the binnacle.
4. n. Same as Pyxis.
5. v. To test as to weight and fineness, as the coins deposited in the pyx.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any receptacle in which wafers for the Eucharist are kept
2. n. a chest in which coins from the mint are held to await assay