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
The Department of Education building is ugly in a distinctly Washington way—a concrete shoebox more suggestive of bureaucratic toil than of any grand vision of government.
—Emma Green, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
The list of items that authorities found when his house was raided in 1957 is pure nightmare fuel, including a wastebasket made of human skin, bowls made from skulls, a belt made of nipples, a lampshade created from a human face, and nine vulvas in a shoebox.
—Brian Tallerico, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2025
Some of his collection was organized by body part: nine vulvas in one shoebox, four noses in another; a Quaker Oats container filled with scraps.
—Elizabeth Yuko, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2025
But don’t kid yourself, this thing is about as aerodynamic as a shoebox taped to a cinder block.
—New Atlas, 27 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shoebox
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Emma Green, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
The list of items that authorities found when his house was raided in 1957 is pure nightmare fuel, including a wastebasket made of human skin, bowls made from skulls, a belt made of nipples, a lampshade created from a human face, and nine vulvas in a shoebox.
—Brian Tallerico, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2025
Some of his collection was organized by body part: nine vulvas in one shoebox, four noses in another; a Quaker Oats container filled with scraps.
—Elizabeth Yuko, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2025
But don’t kid yourself, this thing is about as aerodynamic as a shoebox taped to a cinder block.
—New Atlas, 27 Sep. 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 23 Oct. 2025.
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