warehouse

American  

[wair-hous, wair-houz, -hous] / ˈwɛərˌhaʊs, ˈwɛərˌhaʊz, -ˌhaʊs /

noun

warehouses plural

1. a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.

2. British. a large retail store.

3. a building, or a part of one, in which wholesalers keep large stocks of merchandise, which they display and sell to retailers.

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verb (used with object)

warehouses, present (3rd person singular) warehoused, past participle, past warehousing present participle

1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.

2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

3. to place in a government or bonded warehouse, to be kept until duties are paid.

4. Informal. to confine (the mentally ill) to large institutions for long-term custodial care.

warehouse British  

noun

1. a place where goods are stored prior to their use, distribution, or sale

2. See bonded warehouse

3. a large commercial, esp wholesale, establishment

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verb

1. (tr) to store or place in a warehouse, esp a bonded warehouse

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• miniwarehouse
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• warehouses
  plural

Participles

• warehousing
  present
• warehoused
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• warehouse
  simple
• warehouses
  simple
• have warehoused
  perfect
• has warehoused
  perfect
• am warehousing
  progressive
• are warehousing
  progressive
• is warehousing
  progressive
• have been warehousing
  perfect progressive
• has been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Past

• warehoused
  simple
• had warehoused
  perfect
• was warehousing
  progressive
• were warehousing
  progressive
• had been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will warehouse
  simple
• will have warehoused
  perfect
• will be warehousing
  progressive
• will have been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of warehouse

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at ware ¹, house

Explanation

A warehouse is a place where a company stores things they are going to sell. If you order a book online, it is almost certainly shipped from a warehouse to your house. When a business has to store a lot of items, they often use a warehouse, or a large building, to keep them safe and organized until they're sold or made into a finished product. You can use the word warehouse as a verb, too: "I need to warehouse all these roller skates, because they're not selling as fast as I'd hoped." Warehouse combines ware, or "manufactured goods," and house. In other words, it's a place to house your wares.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

warehouse warehouses warehoused warehousing

The company was cited Thursday for the continuation of “unsanitary and nuisance” conditions at the warehouse, even as the cleanup continued.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Flavio, touching his arm, declared to a cheering crowd in a Sao Paulo warehouse.

From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026

During the second inspection, inspectors found decaying organic waste, wastewater, food residue, unsanitary conditions that allowed the breeding of flies, as well as live and dead flies along the northern perimeter of the warehouse.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026

French warehouse specialist Argan and Belgian peer WDP agreed to create a logistics real estate company, the latest move toward consolidation in the European sector.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

The driver hit the gas and the tires squealed as the truck made a sharp turn and then accelerated right through a bombed-out warehouse onto a parallel alley.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

"Rapid evacuation was carried out at all the warehouses ... according to preliminary data, there are no casualties," Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim said on social media.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

In Ukraine's attacks on Russia, drones have now hit Wildberries warehouses across Russia three times in six days, with Friday's attacks targeting a facility near Saint Petersburg.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

In total, around half her inventory was destroyed in the strikes on the warehouses near Moscow and in southern Russia, costing more than $160,000.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The movie’s vision of Los Angeles isn’t typical: warehouses in the Valley, back alleys in downtown.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

“The whole thing would be hundreds of miles long. It’s all over town, in warehouses, silos, basements, and attics.”

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

Faced with what he thought were his only choices—being warehoused, or dying—he applied for MAID.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025

"You're seeing people basically get warehoused because the courts can't deal with the demand."

From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2025

Surplus items were warehoused, donated, or thrown away.

From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2024

She also sought to ease the transition of patients from being warehoused in state mental hospitals to living independently.

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2024

The beavers’ skins were warehoused and labelled as “parchments” or “young beavers,” according to their value.

From The Fur Country Seventy Degrees North Latitude by D'Anvers, N.

Jobs in utilities, oil and gas extraction as well as transportation and warehousing also saw strong increases in hours worked.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026

Richardson is betting on music at a time when other cities — including Los Angeles — are doubling down on sports, warehousing or data centers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

Male-dominated sectors such as manufacturing and transportation and warehousing have been losing jobs, with some affected by tariffs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026

Last month's jobs gains mainly came in the health care, transportation and warehousing, and retail trade sectors.

From Barron's ● May 8, 2026

When our elders presented school to us, they did not present it as a place of high learning but as a means of escape from death and penal warehousing.

From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates