crate
Americannoun
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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)
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:
Two practice journeys with a textile copy were previously made, to test the route and the crate.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
They hoisted it onto a crate, while one worker held its pointed top to keep it from falling.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
Moving a roughly 86-ton spacecraft, especially without damaging it, is not as simple as placing a Pablo Picasso in a padded crate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
During the frenzy of the fire, Fillmore had apparently run out of his unlocked crate and was later found hiding in the 90-year-old’s bedroom, shaking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
Cully dropped into the chair and patted a crate for me to sit on.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
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
A police search team spent a week in the Met's property warehouse, going through more than 200 large crates in the hope of finding the missing exhibits.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 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
The back rooms of the La Brea Tar Pits are, at the moment, a maze of packing crates tagged with handwritten sticky notes that say things like “bison skulls” or “camel hip.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
It is one long room running almost the length of the ship, though one can hardly walk for the barrels and crates that are taking up most of the room.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
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
Dogs are not allowed inside unless they're crated, she said.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2022
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
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
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
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
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.
