crate
Americannoun
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a slatted wooden box or framework for packing, shopping, or storing fruit, furniture, glassware, crockery, etc.
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any completely enclosed boxlike packing or shipping case.
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Informal. something rickety and dilapidated, especially an automobile.
They're still driving around in the old crate they bought 20 years ago.
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a quantity, especially of fruit, that is often packed in a crate approximately 2 × 1 × 1 foot (0.6 × 0.3 × 0.3 meters).
a crate of oranges.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a fairly large container, usually made of wooden slats or wickerwork, used for packing, storing, or transporting goods
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slang an old car, aeroplane, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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uncrateverb (used with object)
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recrateverb (used with object)
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cratefulnoun
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craternoun
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uncratedadjective
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have cratedperfect
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has cratedperfect 3rd person singular
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am cratingprogressive 1st person singular
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is cratingprogressive 3rd person singular
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are cratingprogressive
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has been cratingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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have been cratingperfect progressive
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cratessingular 3rd person
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cratingparticiple
Past
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had cratedperfect
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had been cratingperfect progressive
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cratedparticiple
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was cratingprogressive singular
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cratedsimple
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were cratingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of crate
1350–1400; 1915–20 crate for def. 3; Middle English, obscurely akin to Latin crātis wickerwork, hurdle
Explanation
A crate is a wooden container that's made for transporting or shipping goods. Your uncle might send you a crate of Florida oranges for a Christmas gift. Boxes made of wood that are filled with goods and loaded on trucks, ships, or planes are called crates, and to fill them is also to crate. Groceries are often shipped or delivered in crates, like crates of eggs, milk crates, or a crate of bananas. The amount of some item that fits in one crate is also called a crate — "The market ordered seven crates of ice cream for the Fourth of July weekend."
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
