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 nounMichael Kimmelmana shoebox apartment
Since commercial real estate was cheaper, art galleries and Off Off Off Broadway theaters could spring up in shoebox storefronts.—James Wolcott
James WolcottExamples of shoebox in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Big fun will arrive in tiny packages at the eighth annual Dairy Block Petite Parade, which plays off Mardi Gras and features miniature floats built from a shoebox base, and pulled on wheels.
—John Wenzel, Denver Post, 26 Feb. 2026
Memory Box One of my personal ways to use old shoeboxes is to turn them into a memory box.
—Ashlyn Needham, Southern Living, 25 Feb. 2026
Eventually, Frank Reiss moved back to Atlanta and opened A Cappella Books, a shoebox of a store in Little Five Points, and Reiss watched his son’s success with admiration and even some envy.
—Casey Cep, New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2026
Parked outside the Charlotte Dowd YMCA, Antoine Turner reached into the backseat of his Chevrolet Camaro, past his five-year-old daughter and toward a Nike shoebox.
—Julia Coin, Charlotte Observer, 22 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for shoebox
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John Wenzel, Denver Post, 26 Feb. 2026
Memory Box One of my personal ways to use old shoeboxes is to turn them into a memory box.
—Ashlyn Needham, Southern Living, 25 Feb. 2026
Eventually, Frank Reiss moved back to Atlanta and opened A Cappella Books, a shoebox of a store in Little Five Points, and Reiss watched his son’s success with admiration and even some envy.
—Casey Cep, New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2026
Parked outside the Charlotte Dowd YMCA, Antoine Turner reached into the backseat of his Chevrolet Camaro, past his five-year-old daughter and toward a Nike shoebox.
—Julia Coin, Charlotte Observer, 22 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for shoebox
Cite this Entry
“Shoebox.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoebox. Accessed 11 Mar. 2026.
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