crate
Americannoun
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crates
plural
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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)
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crates,
present (3rd person singular)
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crated,
past participle, past
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crating
present participle
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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cratefulnoun
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craternoun
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recrateverb (used with object)
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uncrateverb (used with object)
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uncratedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cratesimple
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cratessimple
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have cratedperfect
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has cratedperfect
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am cratingprogressive
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are cratingprogressive
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is cratingprogressive
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have been cratingperfect progressive
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has been cratingperfect progressive
Past
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cratedsimple
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had cratedperfect
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was cratingprogressive
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were cratingprogressive
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had been cratingperfect progressive
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."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Try keeping them in a smaller space, like a crate, to minimize overstimulation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Days after a wall of water and debris ripped through Nepal, Shanti Lamichhane sat on a fruit crate in the dirt where her village once stood, staring at what remained of her home.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
It has taken almost two years to plan, including building a special temperature-controlled crate for him, and co-ordinating complex paperwork across two countries.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
An Australian library has welcomed home a book roughly 150 years overdue after it was discovered inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
The Minerwa factory, says Herr Braun, our director, sweating in his suit while standing on a crate, is a system of rules and regulations, where we, the workers, will be valued.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
On a Saturday in late September 2025, the 40-year-old mother of four was loading crates of grapes onto a forklift in a Fresno County field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
She sent Grace off with three crates of supplies, which her daughter described as being "stocked for the apocalypse just in case anything went awry".
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
Drolma’s team begins packing the best matsutakes into Styrofoam crates, pinching little creased pockets in the packing paper to cushion each mushroom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
"Plus the crates, plus people to look after them on the flights, veterinary care, even the forklift trucks to lift the crates up on to the plane are expensive, so it all adds up."
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
I’d end up in the back with the empty vegetable crates.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
Staged in Philadelphia by Eleonora Gravagnola, it is set in a modern-day art gallery, where a traveling exhibit is being crated up for transfer to its next location.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2025
At first, Ms. Sheridan crated Nala and left the apartment for a while each day to prepare the dog for their imminent separation.
From New York Times ● May 19, 2022
The 16-foot-high gilded crucifix is stored in crated sections, Jesus lying akimbo in the garage.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 25, 2021
As fighting intensified, the Germans dismantled the room and crated it up.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 11, 2020
I hurried to the kitchen, where she was crated.
From "Keep It Together, Keiko Carter" by Debbi Michiko Florence
The workers were responsible for capturing and crating turkeys destined for slaughter, Pennsylvania State Police said Thursday.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
Dwelling on Luger’s intentions with the piece, I was reminded of something I heard him mention while delivering a large ceramic bison skull for crating.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2022
DeJoy, 63, built a fortune by turning a small trucking company into a logistics giant that profited by warehousing and crating cargo and mail for delivery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2020
One theory holds that reducing stimuli at night might work, but she wasn’t sold on the idea of crating him in the dark for hours.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 19, 2018
I drew out a design for an A-frame signboard that the boys and I could build with crating scraps and place in front of the store.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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.
