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glove compartment

American  

noun

  • glove compartments
    plural
  1. a compartment in the dashboard of an automobile for storing small items.


glove compartment British  

noun

  1. a small compartment in a car dashboard for the storage of miscellaneous articles

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of glove compartment

First recorded in 1935–40

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:

I had to use the trunk opener inside the glove compartment, which, of course, had been jimmied open, and I kept closed with duct tape.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 9, 2026

Photos from the scene of her death show kids’ toys spilling out of her glove compartment.

From Slate Jan. 9, 2026

No more scrolling through your phone to find that bar code, or scrambling through your glove compartment to find that parking pass.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 29, 2025

The body camera footage shows an exchange that became more tense when Ms. Heard let the officers know that she had a gun locked in her glove compartment.

From New York Times Aug. 4, 2023

I reach past her into the glove compartment for my Rolaids.

From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

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