Library / English Dictionary

CRATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A rugged box (usually made of wood); used for shipping

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("crate" is a kind of...):

box (a (usually rectangular) container; may have a lid)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crate"):

packing box; packing case (a large crate in which goods are packed for shipment or storage)

soapbox (a crate for packing soap)

Derivation:

crate (put into a crate; as for protection)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quantity contained in a crate

Synonyms:

crate; crateful

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("crate" is a kind of...):

containerful (the quantity that a container will hold)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put into a crate; as for protection

Example:

crate the paintings before shipping them to the museum

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "crate" is one way to...):

case; encase; incase (enclose in, or as if in, a case)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They crate the goods

Antonym:

uncrate (remove from the crate)

Derivation:

crate (a rugged box (usually made of wood); used for shipping)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the saloon-keeper let him alone, and in the morning four men entered and picked up the crate.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Why were they keeping him pent up in this narrow crate?

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Then he, and the crate in which he was imprisoned, began a passage through many hands.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Whereupon he lay down sullenly and allowed the crate to be lifted into a wagon.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“‘Answers to the name of Buck,’” the man soliloquized, quoting from the saloon-keeper’s letter which had announced the consignment of the crate and contents.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

As the days went by, other dogs came, in crates and at the ends of ropes, some docilely, and some raging and roaring as he had come; and, one and all, he watched them pass under the dominion of the man in the red sweater.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York—every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)