crate

[kreyt]

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.

verb (used with object)

crated, crating 

1. to pack in a crate.

crate

/ 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

verb

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

Other Word Forms

• recrate verb (used with object)
• uncrate verb (used with object)
• uncrated adjective
• crater noun
• crateful noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of crate¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of crate¹

C16: from Latin crātis wickerwork, hurdle

Example Sentences

Penelope ran in a zigzag, ducking behind crates and heaps of coiled rope as she made her way to the ships.

Read more on Literature

One of the most amazing of all had to do with the hundreds of large wooden crates in which so much of the cargo-turned-artifacts was packed.

Read more on Literature

Sotheby’s old York Avenue space was designed to be a one-stop-shop for art, so consigned pieces arrived in crates, were photographed and cataloged, then cleaned and reframed if needed—and eventually sold.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Gorringe and his men were unpacking crates, which were full of iron parts and wood.

Read more on Literature

The serval did not want to go into her crate.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• box 
• cage 
• carton