crate
Americannoun
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crates
plural
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a slatted wooden box or framework for packing, shopping, or storing fruit, furniture, glassware, crockery, etc.
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any completely enclosed boxlike packing or shipping case.
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Informal. something rickety and dilapidated, especially an automobile.
They're still driving around in the old crate they bought 20 years ago.
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a quantity, especially of fruit, that is often packed in a crate approximately 2 × 1 × 1 foot (0.6 × 0.3 × 0.3 meters).
a crate of oranges.
verb (used with object)
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crates,
present (3rd person singular)
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crated,
past participle, past
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crating
present participle
noun
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a fairly large container, usually made of wooden slats or wickerwork, used for packing, storing, or transporting goods
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slang an old car, aeroplane, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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cratefulnoun
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craternoun
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recrateverb (used with object)
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uncrateverb (used with object)
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uncratedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cratesimple
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cratessimple
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have cratedperfect
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has cratedperfect
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am cratingprogressive
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are cratingprogressive
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is cratingprogressive
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have been cratingperfect progressive
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has been cratingperfect progressive
Past
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cratedsimple
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had cratedperfect
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was cratingprogressive
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were cratingprogressive
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had been cratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of crate
1350–1400; 1915–20 crate for def. 3; Middle English, obscurely akin to Latin crātis wickerwork, hurdle
Explanation
A crate is a wooden container that's made for transporting or shipping goods. Your uncle might send you a crate of Florida oranges for a Christmas gift. Boxes made of wood that are filled with goods and loaded on trucks, ships, or planes are called crates, and to fill them is also to crate. Groceries are often shipped or delivered in crates, like crates of eggs, milk crates, or a crate of bananas. The amount of some item that fits in one crate is also called a crate — "The market ordered seven crates of ice cream for the Fourth of July weekend."
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:
The atomic bomb in the crate that a helicopter carefully deposits in Carol’s driveway in the last scene?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
An Australian library has welcomed home a book roughly 150 years overdue after it was discovered inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
These crate paintings lay groundwork for Gottlieb’s pictograph series, which would become a signature for him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
A big black crate being removed from a lorry in the dead of night may not sound that exciting but this is a historic moment - and BBC News was also there to witness it.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
It is followed by frantic squawking, and I realize it is only a chicken crate that has smashed into an ale barrel down below.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
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
We took a lot of long walks to help deal with the stress of the not knowing, but the magic panacea for me came the day Steve’s Harley-Davidson arrived in one of the crates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
At the warehouse in Bangkok's Nonthaburi suburb, the sound of people rummaging through products and plastic crates clattering against shopping carts echoes through the building.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
They flash IDs and walk away clutching crates like they’ve just collected treasure from a Swiss vault.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
All around him were crates and trunks and bags neatly stacked on shelves and lined up on the floor.
From "I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912" by Lauren Tarshis
Staged in Philadelphia by Eleonora Gravagnola, it is set in a modern-day art gallery, where a traveling exhibit is being crated up for transfer to its next location.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2025
At first, Ms. Sheridan crated Nala and left the apartment for a while each day to prepare the dog for their imminent separation.
From New York Times ● May 19, 2022
The 16-foot-high gilded crucifix is stored in crated sections, Jesus lying akimbo in the garage.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 25, 2021
If your dog is used to being crated, have them go in their crate, Howe said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2020
He looked at which paintings were being crated and realized each had an identification label with a red dot.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
The workers were responsible for capturing and crating turkeys destined for slaughter, Pennsylvania State Police said Thursday.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
DeJoy, 63, built a fortune by turning a small trucking company into a logistics giant that profited by warehousing and crating cargo and mail for delivery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2020
Liz Whitehurst dabbled in several careers before she ended up here, crating fistfuls of fresh-cut arugula in the early-November chill.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2017
The cost ranges from $10 to $300, but for “white-glove” shipping — which includes packing, crating, insuring and cleanup after delivery — it can top $1,000.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2017
I drew out a design for an A-frame signboard that the boys and I could build with crating scraps and place in front of the store.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
