Green’s Dictionary of Slang

box-about n.

[SE box about, to sail up and down, often changing the direction, ult. ? f. boxing the compass]
(W.I.)

1. a man who is an idler, a loafer.

[WI]cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

2. a trollop, a promiscuous woman, esp. when she has a number of children, each by a different father.

[WI]cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).