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
That 1949 letter, discovered during a 2023 digitization project in Bavaria, pointed curators toward a shoebox of lemon‑yellow fragments that had sat unnoticed for decades.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 18 July 2025
All packages delivered in this manner must weigh less than five pounds and fit in cardboard containers roughly the size of a shoebox.
—Russ Wiles, AZCentral.com, 10 July 2025
This bore out in both Korda’s professional interests and his attempt to build a relationship with Liesl: At one point near the end of his life, Malouf produced a series of shoeboxes from his closet of effects gathered throughout his career, and explained their contents to his daughter.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 6 June 2025
The Phoenician Scheme repeats that shoebox imagery.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for shoebox
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Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 18 July 2025
All packages delivered in this manner must weigh less than five pounds and fit in cardboard containers roughly the size of a shoebox.
—Russ Wiles, AZCentral.com, 10 July 2025
This bore out in both Korda’s professional interests and his attempt to build a relationship with Liesl: At one point near the end of his life, Malouf produced a series of shoeboxes from his closet of effects gathered throughout his career, and explained their contents to his daughter.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 6 June 2025
The Phoenician Scheme repeats that shoebox imagery.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for shoebox
Cite this Entry
“Shoebox.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoebox. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.
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