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.

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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

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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

"Our great country can be much more than a data warehouse for AI products made overseas."

From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026

Weeks later, the Lineage warehouse fire sent even more debris and pollution downstream.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

That meant ditching bright orangy accents for a more subdued facade with many more windows, making the property look more like an office building than a warehouse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 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

“Last night Mr. Singh went to the warehouse to pick up a shipment of ice cream, like he usually does,” he said.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

The infested grapevines were shipped from Fresno to Costco warehouses in 24 Northern California counties in April and May, state officials said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

The same invasive insect was found to have infested grapevines sold at select Northern California Costco warehouses earlier this year, also triggering a major response to try to limit the insect’s impact.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

When Vietnam's police raided a pair of nondescript warehouses in outer Ho Chi Minh City earlier this year, they discovered more than 23,000 pairs of slippers bearing the logos of Nike, Adidas, Crocs and Gucci.

From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026

While the machines are just starting to enter workplaces such as factories and warehouses, some companies plan to eventually deploy them in people’s homes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026

“The whole thing would be hundreds of miles long. It’s all over town, in warehouses, silos, basements, and attics.”

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

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

"You're seeing people basically get warehoused because the courts can't deal with the demand."

From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2025

Surplus items were warehoused, donated, or thrown away.

From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2024

She also sought to ease the transition of patients from being warehoused in state mental hospitals to living independently.

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2024

Picturing himself as such a Croesus, he innocently thought that his first act would be to take train for Chicago and inspect the warehoused accumulations of those princes of trade with his own eager eyes!

From Success A Novel by Adams, Samuel Hopkins

Jobs in utilities, oil and gas extraction as well as transportation and warehousing also saw strong increases in hours worked.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026

Richardson is betting on music at a time when other cities — including Los Angeles — are doubling down on sports, warehousing or data centers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

This past week, Amazon introduced External link “Amazon Supply Chain Solutions,” which aims to provide distribution, warehousing, and last-mile delivery to “any business.”

From Barron's ● May 12, 2026

The U.S. job market blew past expectations again in April, buoyed by gains in industries including retail and transportation and warehousing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026

Milo’s mess halls would not even help him store the cotton, and his warehousing costs skyrocketed and contributed to the devastating drain upon his cash reserves.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller