shoebox

American  

[shoo-boks] / ˈʃuˌbɒks /

Or shoe box

noun

1. an oblong cardboard box of a standard size used to package a pair of shoes for sale.

2. any house, building, or other construction likened to a shoebox because of its shape or cramped area.

---

Etymology

Origin of shoebox

First recorded in 1855–60; shoe + box ¹

Example Sentences

The shoebox of football cards, the smell of my old hockey equipment, the sound of the desk safe where I kept my silver dollars all transport me back decades.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2025

He works in an office plaza, lives in a shoebox apartment with vellum-thin walls and socializes at his choice of nearby casual dining establishments with names like Flingers and Chotchkie’s Bar & Grill.

From Salon • Mar. 1, 2024

He managed to snatch a shoebox of greeting cards and his two Chihuahuas, before climbing out his bedroom window.

From New York Times • Jan. 23, 2024

Ziwei can still remember the months she spent huddling alone in a tiny shoebox apartment in Taipei.

From BBC • Jan. 11, 2024

The last anyone had heard from Lillian was a letter she’d sent sometime in the eighties, which Gladys kept in a shoebox under the couch.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot