crate

From Dutch krat (“crate, large box, basket”), from Middle Dutch cratte (“basketware, mold”), from Old Dutch *kratta, *kratto (“basket”), from Proto-Germanic *kratjô, *krattijô (“basket”), from Proto-Indo-European *gred-, *gre(n)t- (“plaiting, wicker, basket, cradle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to bind, twist, wind”). Cognate with West Frisian kret (“wheelbarrow”), German Krätze (“basket”), Old English cræt, ceart (“cart, wagon, chariot”), Old Norse kartr (“wagon”), modern English cart. Alternatively from Latin crātis (“wickerwork”), perhaps from the same PIE root.[1]

• IPA^(key): /kɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

crate (plural crates)

1. A large open box or basket, used especially to transport fragile goods. [from 1680s]

   Synonym: packing case

2. (slang, mildly derogatory) An aircraft or spacecraft.
   • 1936, Joseph R. James, "More Gates Air Circus Antics" (Popular Aviation, November 1936)

     They shook the head of the unconscious pilot and when the latter opened his eyes, blinking wildly, the other members of the family lifted up the tail of the overturned crate sufficiently high enough to enable the dazed pilot, after releasing his belt, to fall out of the cockpit head first and disengage himself from the crack-up.

   • 2010, Gillian Coleby, Knocking on the Moonlit Door (page 99)

     I will make this box of electronics and computer chips fly like no other spaceship has ever flown. Mission Control wanted to see what this crate could do.

3. (programming) In the Rust programming language, a binary or library.

• crate engine
• crate motor

crate (third-person singular simple present crates, present participle crating, simple past and past participle crated)

1. (transitive) To put into a crate. [from 1871]
2. (transitive) To keep in a crate.

• Carte, React, Trace, acter, caret, carte, cater, creat, react, recta, reäct, trace

crāte

1. ablative singular of crātis