Meaning & use
freight elevator
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A large elevator designed to carry goods rather than passengers.
Grammar: Countable: a freight elevator, the freight elevator, two freight elevators.
Patterns
- take the freight elevator
- load something onto a freight elevator
- a freight elevator in a building
The delivery crew brought the boxes up in the freight elevator.
Staff are asked to use the freight elevator when moving heavy equipment.
The old warehouse still has a wooden freight elevator.
Word forms
| plural | freight elevators |
|---|
Common combinations
- use the freight elevator
- Please use the freight elevator for anything larger than a suitcase.
- a freight elevator in
- There is a freight elevator in the back of the store.
- take the freight elevator up
- They took the freight elevator up to the fourth floor.
- a freight elevator shaft
- The plans show a new freight elevator shaft beside the loading dock.
Synonyms and how they differ
- goods lift
- The usual British term for the same thing; use it in British contexts.
- service elevator
- Often similar, but a service elevator may also carry staff and is not only for goods.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: freight elevator or freight?
freight elevator vs freight
'Freight' is the goods themselves; a 'freight elevator' is the machine that lifts them.
Practice
The piano was too heavy for the passenger lift, so we used the ______ elevator.
Choose one answer.
'Freight elevator' is the fixed term for a lift built to carry goods. 'Fright' sounds similar but means fear, and the other forms do not fit before a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “freight elevator”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.