<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> A glove compartment or glovebox or glovie is a compartment built into the dashboard of an automobile, located over the front - seat passenger's footwell, and often used for miscellaneous storage . The name derives from the original purpose of the compartment, to store driving gloves . They were sometimes in a box on the floorboard near the driver, hence the word "glovebox". In most vehicles, the glove compartment closes with a latch, with the option of being locked with a key (often desirable when using valet service, or when parking with the convertible top down, or when the compartment contains a mechanism to open the trunk). </P> <P> In Barbados, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, as well as parts of southern Minnesota and northwest Wyoming, the glove compartment is commonly referred to as a "cubby - hole". </P>

Where does the term glove box come from