cart

1 of 2

noun

ˈkärt 

plural carts

1

: a heavy usually horse-drawn 2-wheeled vehicle used for farming or transporting freight

2

: a lightweight 2-wheeled vehicle drawn by a horse, pony, or dog

3

a

: a small wheeled vehicle see golf cart, grocery cart, shopping cart sense 1

b

: a table with wheels that is used especially for serving food

I make conversation after asking to look at the menu: That apple tart on the dessert cart—who made it, and what's in the crust?

—Corby Kummer

4

: a temporary record of items selected for purchase from an online vendor : shopping cart sense 2

You head back to your favorite Web shopping site, and the stuff you crammed in your cart last time is still there, waiting for you to buy it or dump it.

—Neil Randall

cart

2 of 2

verb

carted; carting; carts

transitive verb

1

: to carry or convey in or as if in a cart

… buses to cart the kids to and from school.

—L. S. Gannett

2

: to take or drag away without ceremony or by force

—usually used with off

they carted him off to jail

carter noun

Synonyms of cart

Noun

• wagon

Verb

• carry
• haul
• transport
• ferry
• pack
• bring

Examples of cart in a Sentence

Noun

a cart piled up with hay

Verb

We carted some dirt to the garden.

I carted all the books home.

He carted the bags away.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The county would phase out the financial incentive for a 30-gallon cart because the smaller carts are more frequently overpacked and take longer to collect. — Daniel Lempres, Sacbee.com, 30 Sep. 2026

Rather than pulling students out of their classrooms for English lessons, Hardy brings the learning to them, rolling her cart from class to class. — Alexa Liacko, CBS News, 28 Sep. 2026

Verb

VanSumeren was also listed as questionable on Wednesday’s Big Ten availability report after being carted off the field with an apparent knee injury Saturday. — Sean Campbell, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026

This is the kind of show where an opulent tea party is dramatized not just by many different plates of fancy pastries, fancy wreaths and lots of furniture, but by having all that stuff carted in by a dozen or so butlers, maids and other servants. — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 1 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, probably from Old Norse kartr; akin to Old English cræt cart

First Known Use

Noun

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing cart

• apple cart
• bar cart
• crash cart
• go-cart
• golf cart
• grocery cart
• put the cart before the horse
• shopping cart
• tea cart
• upset the apple cart

Rhymes for cart

• art
• carte
• chart
• dart
• fart
• haart
• mart
• part
• smart
• start
• tart
• apart

Kids Definition

cart

1 of 2 noun

ˈkärt 

1

: a heavy two-wheeled wagon usually pulled by a horse

2

: a light usually two-wheeled vehicle

pony cart

cart

2 of 2 verb

: to carry in or as if in a cart

carter noun