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

Luckily, this compact Keurig is smaller than a shoebox. —Sian Babish, PEOPLE, 9 May 2026

If new graduates can bear being stuck in a shoebox apartment, New York and San Francisco are still hotspots for hiring. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 6 May 2026

Spaeny and Melton, meanwhile, play Ashley Miller and Austin Davis, a young couple roughing it in a shoebox apartment over-the-moon in love with one another. —Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 13 Apr. 2026

The flywheel is small, not unlike an extra large shoebox. —Katia Riddle, NPR, 9 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 1