shoebox

noun

shoe·​box ˈshü-ˌbäks 

variants or less commonly shoe box

1

: a box that shoes are sold in

a shoebox full of old photographs

2

: 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

Instead, FedEx got the call and this beautiful roundball—sans air—was shoved into a shoebox. —Brett Owens, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024

But Andrés Vanegas and his brother, Rubén, amateur paleontologists from La Victoria, a small town north of the desert, collected fossils from the area and kept them in shoeboxes and plastic containers. —Byrodrigo Pérez Ortega, science.org, 17 July 2024

Shoebox race Tape lids securely to shoeboxes and cut slits in the top about 1 inch wide and 4 inches long. —Catherine Holecko, Parents, 30 July 2024

Then the next player on the team hops into the shoeboxes for their turn. —Catherine Holecko, Parents, 30 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 1