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

The feeling, somewhere between limerence and infatuation, hit me like a shoebox precariously shelved too high. —Madeline Hirsch, InStyle, 16 June 2026

Teens, tweens, and shoebox-sized apartment dwellers alike can welcome this upholstered bed frame into their space. —Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 12 June 2026

Luckily, this compact coffee maker is smaller than a shoebox. —Sian Babish, PEOPLE, 3 June 2026

The shoes arrive in specially co-branded packaging consisting of dustbags, a shoebox and a tissue liner. —Karla Rodriguez, Footwear News, 19 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 1