apple cart

noun

ap·​ple cart ˈa-pəl-ˌkärt 

variants or less commonly applecart

: an established or expected plan, system, situation, or undertaking that may be disrupted or terminated

She … wanted to kind of do things her way without turning the apple cart completely upside down.

—Ron Wood, quoted in Sports Business Journal

see also:

upset the apple cart

Examples of apple cart in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But the apple cart never tips over, and in total, the series is the sort of sweeping intergenerational saga contemporary TV rarely attempts and even more rarely achieves. — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1788, in the meaning defined above