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

But don’t kid yourself, this thing is about as aerodynamic as a shoebox taped to a cinder block. —New Atlas, 27 Sep. 2025

Germany will present the world’s first code-deployable biological computer, no larger than a shoebox, at a first-class networking summit dedicated to the future of biointelligent value creation. —Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 26 Sep. 2025

The company’s smaller sized safes, which begin at $1,350 per year and are the size of a semi-flattened shoebox, are all currently occupied. —Kati Chitrakorn, CNN Money, 17 Sep. 2025

Authorities recovered a bottle of alcohol and two operable firearms with ammunition in a shoebox in the vehicle, according to court docs. —Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 6 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 1