shoebox

noun

shoe·box ˈshü-ˌbäks

variants or less commonly shoe box

: a box that shoes are sold in

a shoebox full of old photographs

: a small space and especially a small living space

The loft, almost an hour from her house by tube, is a shoebox with 18-foot ceilings, white and blue, with odds and ends of mismatched furniture …—Michael Kimmelman

—often used before another noun

a shoebox apartment

Since commercial real estate was cheaper, art galleries and Off Off Off Broadway theaters could spring up in shoebox storefronts.—James Wolcott

Examples of shoebox in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Not because a 12-truck fleet needs enterprise features, but because putting work orders, PM schedules, and part costs in one place makes patterns easier to spot when the data would otherwise be scattered across three notebooks and a shoebox. — Malana Vantyler, Ascend Agency, 11 Aug. 2026 The company’s shoebox-sized tunable lasers are crucial to ensuring seamless transmission. — Naazneen Karmali, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026 Unlike traditional laboratory-scale systems, the Evergreen-05 fits inside a five-liter enclosure roughly the size of a shoebox. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 6 Aug. 2026 The Nazis tried to take it from Rome during the Second World War, but failed after the head of the Italian Football Federation, Ottorino Barassi, hid it in a shoebox underneath his bed. — Eduardo Tansley, New York Times, 19 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for shoebox

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of shoebox was in 1838

See more words from the same year

Browse Nearby Words

shoe bolt

shoebox

shoe button

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Shoebox.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoebox. Accessed 16 Aug. 2026.

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shoebox

noun

Examples of shoebox in a Sentence

Word History

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

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