warehouse

American  

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

noun

plural

warehouses

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)

warehoused, warehousing

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

• miniwarehouse noun

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

Retrofitting the warehouse for immigration detention would create construction sediment that would run into nearby waterways, Maryland’s lawsuit argued, and housing hundreds of people there would strain the water supply and create sewage overflows.

From Slate • Apr. 27, 2026

Maryland is not the only state taking this approach: Michigan is making a similar environmental argument in a lawsuit over an ICE warehouse planned for the small blue-collar city of Romulus.

From Slate • Apr. 27, 2026

ICE did not say it was abandoning the project, and seemed to be weighing whether the warehouse would house 542 people or 1,500 people for detention and processing.

From Slate • Apr. 27, 2026

The Orange County's Building Safety's office on Thursday posted a stop work order at the warehouse where animals had been housed.

From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026

Four crew members, armed with crab nets, climbed to the roof of the warehouse.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey