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crate

[kreyt]
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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), crat·ed, crat·ing.
  1. to pack in a crate.
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Origin of crate

1350–1400; 1915–20 for def 3; Middle English, obscurely akin to Latin crātis wickerwork, hurdle
Related formsre·crate, verb (used with object), re·crat·ed, re·crat·ing.un·crate, verb (used with object), un·crat·ed, un·crat·ing.un·crat·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for crating

Historical Examples

  • Gathering, bundling, crating, and shipping are all to be watched carefully.

    Agriculture for Beginners

    Charles William Burkett

  • "I guess we'll be crating from now till tonight without a stop," he said unhappily.

    Starman's Quest

    Robert Silverberg

  • It can be used for crating and for partitions and other purposes in loading the car.

  • Through the transparent walls he could see the staff packing the records, crating them for shipment.

    Planet of the Damned

    Harry Harrison

  • Ten million feet of lumber were used, chiefly in boxing and crating, as very little wood is now used in the reaper.

    Inventors

    Philip Gengembre Hubert

British Dictionary definitions for crating

crate

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
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Derived Formscrater, nouncrateful, noun

Word Origin

C16: from Latin crātis wickerwork, hurdle
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for crating

crate

n.

"large box," 1680s, earlier "hurdle, grillwork" (late 14c.), from Latin cratis "wickerwork, lattice, kitchen-rack," or from Dutch krat "basket;" both perhaps from a common PIE root *kert- "to turn, entwine" (see hurdle (n.)).

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crate

v.

"to put in a crate," 1871, from crate (n.). Related: Crated; crating.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper