warehouse

American  

[wair-hous, wair-houz, -hous] / ˈwɛərˌhaʊs, ˈwɛərˌhaʊz, -ˌhaʊs /

noun

• warehouses
  plural

1. a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.

2. British. a large retail store.

3. a building, or a part of one, in which wholesalers keep large stocks of merchandise, which they display and sell to retailers.

---

verb (used with object)

• warehouses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• warehoused,
  past participle,  past
• warehousing
  present participle

1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.

2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

3. to place in a government or bonded warehouse, to be kept until duties are paid.

4. Informal. to confine (the mentally ill) to large institutions for long-term custodial care.

warehouse British  

noun

1. a place where goods are stored prior to their use, distribution, or sale

2. See bonded warehouse

3. a large commercial, esp wholesale, establishment

---

verb

1. (tr) to store or place in a warehouse, esp a bonded warehouse

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• miniwarehouse
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• warehouses
  plural

Participles

• warehousing
  present
• warehoused
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• warehouse
  simple
• warehouses
  simple
• have warehoused
  perfect
• has warehoused
  perfect
• am warehousing
  progressive
• are warehousing
  progressive
• is warehousing
  progressive
• have been warehousing
  perfect progressive
• has been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Past

• warehoused
  simple
• had warehoused
  perfect
• was warehousing
  progressive
• were warehousing
  progressive
• had been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will warehouse
  simple
• will have warehoused
  perfect
• will be warehousing
  progressive
• will have been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of warehouse

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at ware ¹, house

Explanation

A warehouse is a place where a company stores things they are going to sell. If you order a book online, it is almost certainly shipped from a warehouse to your house. When a business has to store a lot of items, they often use a warehouse, or a large building, to keep them safe and organized until they're sold or made into a finished product. You can use the word warehouse as a verb, too: "I need to warehouse all these roller skates, because they're not selling as fast as I'd hoped." Warehouse combines ware, or "manufactured goods," and house. In other words, it's a place to house your wares.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

warehouse warehouses warehoused warehousing

A 10,000-square-foot restricted access warehouse to be built at the port will house mooring lines, pedestrian barriers, gangways and repair gear for the US Navy, said a spokeswoman.

From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026

BBC News understands four copies of the Dutch language edition were taken from a truck while it was en route from the Dutch publisher's printers to their warehouse.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

He had been working nights as a "picker-packer" in a warehouse.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

Lineage, the world’s No. 1 cold-storage operator by capacity, is suing solar-panel provider Altus Power and contractor Pearce Services, alleging their negligence caused a fire that destroyed a Los Angeles warehouse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

“Madu and I were stuck with Ahmed there for a while. He wants to buy Daddy’s warehouse in Ikeja.”

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

At ThredUp, AI helps sort the millions of pieces of clothing sent into warehouses, helping speed up operations and reduce costs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

This summer it became evident that those workers, including many women who have been deployed to Russian factories and warehouses, are no longer at a safe distance from the battle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

Due to safety and regulatory concerns, he said, most humanoid robots working in factories and warehouses are physically separated from people.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

"Belgium is attractive because it is a major transport hub and has plenty of warehouses close to the countries where the goods are sold," customs spokeswoman Florence Angelici told AFP.

From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026

“Bartolo told me there would be trains near the warehouses just over the border. We’ll go in a moment to look for the train tracks.”

From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty

“Perishables can’t be warehoused to wait out a price spike, they require diesel-dependent refrigerated trucking constantly,” Lempert said.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

Fenley said she and other Democrats in town were concerned about having people "warehoused in a place that was not built for human habitation".

From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026

Faced with what he thought were his only choices—being warehoused, or dying—he applied for MAID.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025

Surplus items were warehoused, donated, or thrown away.

From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2024

Sometimes they are warehoused at once, and parcelled out to the importer only in small lots, as he needs them.

From Elements of Foreign Exchange A Foreign Exchange Primer by Franklin Escher

Transportation and warehousing was one of the sectors with more jobs, however.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

In warehousing specifically, those humanoids will cost about $10 to $12 per hour to operate — a big saving over the $30 per hour for human labor.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

The Logistics Managers’ Index, a monthly survey of supply-chain managers, showed inventory, transportation and warehousing costs all increased in May compared with April.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026

Most recently, Amazon’s announcement in May of Amazon Supply Chain Service, a business that will provide distribution, warehousing, and last-mile delivery services, sent many logistics stocks south.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

If Morgan Stanley could find someone to sell it insurance on its loans, Hubler could eliminate the market risk of warehousing home loans.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis