anything that contains or can contain something, as a carton, box, crate, or can.
2.
a large, vanlike, reuseable box for consolidating smaller crates or cartons into a single shipment, designed for easy and fast loading and unloading of freight.
Origin
1400-50 for an earlier sense; 1495-1505for def 1;late Middle Englishconteiner; see contain, -er1
Examples from the web for containers
He developed plastic containers used in households to contain food and keep it airtight.
It is widely used in the manufacture of corrugated boxes and shipping containers.
Old corrugated containers are an excellent source of fibre for recycling.
Finally, there are sundry bags and containers for holding knitting, yarns and needles.
Honey is considered to gradually become toxic when preserved in metal containers.
Many restaurants dispense iced tea brewed throughout the day from upright containers.
Cask ales undergo part of their fermentation process in their containers, called casks.
Packaging is putting the beer into the containers in which it will leave the brewery.
These advances have brought to market many new containers and package designs.
Dried calabash is also used as containers of liquids, often liquors or medicine.
British Dictionary definitions for containers
container
/kənˈteɪnə/
noun
1.
an object used for or capable of holding, esp for transport or storage, such as a carton, box, etc
2.
a large cargo-carrying standard-sized container that can be loaded from one mode of transport to another