# warehouse

Pronunciation: say "WAIR-hows" US /ˈwɛɹhaʊs/, UK /ˈwɛəhaʊs/

## Noun

1. A large building used to store goods in bulk, often where products are kept after manufacture and before they reach retailers.
   - Simple: A large building for storing goods before they are sold or shipped out.
   - _The retailer's warehouse held thousands of pallets waiting for distribution._
   - _Goods arrive at the warehouse from the factory before being shipped to stores._

## Verb

2. To store goods in a warehouse or similar large building until they are required.
   - Simple: To put goods in a large building and keep them there until they are needed.
   - _The firm warehouses surplus components near its assembly plant._
   - _Distributors warehouse seasonal goods for months before release._
3. To confine a person to an institution for an extended period.
   - Simple: To keep a person shut away in an institution for a very long time.
   - _Critics argued the asylum did little more than warehouse patients for decades._
   - _The system warehouses inmates without offering any path to rehabilitation._
4. To acquire something and then shelve it, simply to keep competitors from acquiring it.
   - Simple: To buy something and then keep it unused, just so rivals cannot have it.
   - _The corporation moved to warehouse the competing technology before a startup could license it._
   - _Pharmaceutical giants have been accused of warehousing promising drug patents._

## Origin

Formed from 'ware' plus 'house'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/warehouse (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).