crate

American  

[kreyt] / kreɪt /

noun

1. a slatted wooden box or framework for packing, shopping, or storing fruit, furniture, glassware, crockery, etc.

2. any completely enclosed boxlike packing or shipping case.

3. Informal. something rickety and dilapidated, especially an automobile.

   They're still driving around in the old crate they bought 20 years ago.

4. 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.

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verb (used with object)

crated, crating

1. to pack in a crate.

crate British  

/ kreɪt /

noun

1. a fairly large container, usually made of wooden slats or wickerwork, used for packing, storing, or transporting goods

2. slang an old car, aeroplane, etc

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verb

1. (tr) to pack or place in a crate

Other Word Forms

• crateful noun
• crater noun
• recrate verb (used with object)
• uncrate verb (used with object)
• uncrated adjectiveuncrated, uncrating

Etymology

Origin of crate

1350–1400; 1915–20 crate for def. 3; Middle English, obscurely akin to Latin crātis wickerwork, hurdle

Example Sentences

In contrast, David renders with trompe l’oeil precision the wood grain of the cheap crate that Marat was using as a table beside his tub.

From The Wall Street Journal

By 1913, Mrs Graham's father's farm would instead slaughter and rough-pluck the birds, putting them on trains in wicker crates to arrive in London a week later.

From BBC

Ever since then, we’ve been getting ’em in boxes, packets and crates.

From Salon

The government is also looking at ending the use of "confinement systems" in farming including caged hens and pig farrowing crates, which are used to contain sows during birth and nursing.

From BBC

Next to it stands the wooden crate on which Marat wrote.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• box
• cage
• carton