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:
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
These crate paintings lay groundwork for Gottlieb’s pictograph series, which would become a signature for him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Wildlife Officer Cameron Blechert went to the reported location and saw the deer in a dog crate outside a house, according to the news release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
It was heavy and smelly and I was a little worried about what else this special chicken might be able to do, but I carried the crate all the way up to the henhouse anyway.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
For the 25,000th, someone made a throne of beer crates and sat on it, pint in hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Two weeks later, after packing most of his belongings into U-Haul shipping crates, we left Parkersburg, W.Va., in Steve’s red Volkswagen Golf with two suitcases, one Treeing Walker Coonhound and one Aussie/Chow mix.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
At the warehouse in Bangkok's Nonthaburi suburb, the sound of people rummaging through products and plastic crates clattering against shopping carts echoes through the building.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
"Look at the sun," said Himanshu, a trader standing beside crates of tomatoes.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
They were nearing the edge of Lkossa, a grittier part of the city littered with old crates, debris, and other filth.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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
In 1988 she reported that she owned 12,000 dolls and 2,500 teddy bears which were boxed and crated in a 27,000-square-foot warehouse.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2021
Stuart sat on pallets near a back door of the Capitol, ready to be crated and loaded onto a waiting truck.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 24, 2020
The pump wasn’t crated, and it was hard to get a grip on it.
From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
The workers were responsible for capturing and crating turkeys destined for slaughter, Pennsylvania State Police said Thursday.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 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
Liz Whitehurst dabbled in several careers before she ended up here, crating fistfuls of fresh-cut arugula in the early-November chill.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2017
The cost ranges from $10 to $300, but for “white-glove” shipping — which includes packing, crating, insuring and cleanup after delivery — it can top $1,000.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2017
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.
