Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) an old or worthless horse.

1869		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents Abroad 155: We were to select our horses at 3 P.M. At that hour, Abraham, the dragoman, marshaled them before us [...] Blucher shook his head and said: ‘That dragon is going to get himself into trouble fetching those old crates out of the hospital the way they are.’.
1969		in DARE.

2. an aeroplane.

1918		Hall & Niles One Man’s War (1929) diary note 22 Jan. 290: Those beautiful flying box-cars – those unmanageable crates!
1929		(con. 1915) Hall & Niles One Man’s War 119: The old ‘crates’ we flew at that training school would give any self-respecting pilot the willies.
1933		W. Winchell On Broadway 6 June [synd. col.] Bogart Rogers [...] forwards these bits of aviation slang: A plane is always a crate, a bus or a ship.
1941		‘Rows & Rows & Rows’ in C.H. Ward-Jackson Airman’s Song Book (1945) 139: From the Nile to Singapore we’ve left our empty crates.
1953		J. Michener Bridges at Toko-Ri 58: I’m not going to get this crate out of Korea.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 128/2: crate n. Any automobile, truck, bus, airplane, or even a ship.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 174: Can’t that crate be repaired?
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 219: Do you think I don’t know how to fly this fucking crate?
1988		Viz Oct./Nov. 47: Right...let’s see what this crate can do!
2001		Guardian G2 22 Aug. 19: You know there’s more to being a pilot than simply lugging these crates across the pond!
2008		Sun. Times (S. Afr.) Travel 27 Jan. 3: A laconic Alaskan bush pilot who banged the crate down into the 12-foot high grass covering the runway.

3. (US Und.) a (wall) safe.

1929

Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 222: CRATE — A safe, or wall-box.

4. an automobile.

1927		W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 276: crate — an old Ford.
1935		R. Chandler ‘Spanish Blood’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 21: This your crate?
1941		J.K. Butler ‘Saint in Silver’ in Goulart (1967) 62: How long’s this beautiful crate been parked here?
1954		(con. 1938) C. Chessman Cell 2455 102: Where’d ya get this crate, clout it?
1960		H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 236: ‘I see you too have a Rolls,’ Mrs Jerebohm said. ‘Oh! that old crate. That’s a laugh.’.
1970		San Diego Sailor 78: Bud hopped out and [...] I parked the crate.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 301: Can’t find reverse on this fuckin’ crate!
1985		A. Robinson Dick and Jane 65: We toodalooed Steir at Duane Street and hopped into the sleuth’s crate.
1999		J. Baker Walking With Ghosts (2000) 70: I never expect it to start. This must be the oldest crate in the universe.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2012		M. Wilkerson ‘A Clean White Sun’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] Dicey [...] a blood-spattered nigger driving a boss crate with a brutally traumatized white girl in tow.

5. (US) a coffin; thus crated adj., in a coffin.

1925		R. McAlmon in Silk Stockings (1963) 53: I thought I was going home in a crate.
1931		J.T. Farrell ‘Big Jeff’ in Short Stories (1937) 52: The gravediggers cursed all holy hell when they lowered his crated body.
1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 201: Crate.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 128/2: crate n. A coffin.
1976		Pensacola News Jrnl (FL) 2 June D1/5: It has been tagged as a crate, a bone-box, an oak overcoat, a six-foot bungalow, a shell. Chicago gangland mentioned it [...] as a wooden kimono.

6. (US tramp/Und.) a prison.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 128/2: crate n. A jail.

7. a boat.

1948		N.Y. Herald Trib. 31 Dec. 14/4: The Coast Guard orders a fleet of faster boats. [...] The rum mob takes the specifications to a Brooklyn man and says, ‘Make us a crate that’s ten miles faster than these’.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 128/2: crate n. Any automobile, truck, bus, airplane, or even a ship.

8. a truck; a bus.

1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 428: The bus was out of sight. ‘Boy, they really ramble in them big crates.’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 234: The manager at the bus terminal tried to shift the whole party to a dirty creaky old crate.
1960		E. Hoagland Circle Home 192: Aluminum semis from the big-outfit fleets never would pick up a man [...] Haphazard crates were the best to try.
1976		‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Picaros 59: Put my foot down? ... With this crate?

9. a railway hand car.

1956

I. Fleming Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 145: First thing is to get this crate to Rhyolite.

10. a tank.

1956

T. Anderson Your Own Beloved Sons 219: Get this crate moving!

11. (Aus.) a bicycle.

1986

T. Winton That Eye, The Sky 69: He [...] came back riding an old yellow bike, a crappy old crate with a girl’s carry basket on the front.