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

Get Creative With Every Inch Maximizing every inch of a cozy cottage will save it from feeling like a shoebox. —Cameron Beall, Southern Living, 1 Apr. 2026

The rooms The Hoxton’s 192 bedrooms come with names like shoebox, cozy up, roomy terrace, and biggy. —Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 Mar. 2026

User huamanticacacaca posted a photo on Reddit of their daughter’s Easter school project, which shows a shoebox transformed into a detailed scene from the Christian Bible. —Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2026

Her shoebox of a room has enough space for a sleeping bag as a bed, a desk, and a couple of storage bins. —Matthew Sedacca, Curbed, 26 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 1