warehouses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of warehouse.

   Trucks loaded with grain rolled past a row of riverside warehouses.

   Several warehouses caught fire when the blaze spread along the dock.

   Note

   The noun plural shares its spelling with the present-tense verb, so the surrounding grammar decides which is meant. After an article, a number or an adjective (several warehouses, riverside warehouses), it names buildings. In logistics these buildings have a precise role. They are where products wait between the manufacturer and the retailer, which makes the plural natural in talk of distribution networks.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of warehouse.

   The cooperative warehouses each season's harvest in a shared silo.

   A regional distributor warehouses bulk inventory close to its busiest stores.

   Note

   As a verb, warehouse always takes a direct object, and that object changes the tone. When a company warehouses goods, it is simply storing them. When an institution warehouses people, it is confining them for a long time. When a firm warehouses an asset, it is buying it only so rivals cannot have it. The last two uses read as criticism rather than neutral description.

   Critics argue that the system simply warehouses elderly patients for years.

   The studio warehouses scripts it never means to film, just to keep them from competitors.

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