shopping cart

noun

1

: a metal or plastic cart with four small wheels that is used for holding merchandise when shopping (as at a supermarket or department store)

… about the only amenities besides the jumbo-sized shopping carts are a few flatbed dollies to allow shoppers to get large appliances like refrigerators and washing machines to the cash register and then out to the parking lot.

—Jean Crichton

2

: a temporary record of items selected for eventual purchase from an online vendor's website

To set up shop on the Internet, you need a commerce-enabled Web site, which includes the electronic shopping cart; a connection to the credit card network; and finally, a merchant account …

—Tom Negrino

Delivery charges are the No. 1 reason shoppers abandon a virtual shopping cart, according to Jupiter Media Metrix. Every Internet shopper has a shipping-charge horror story.

—Ellen Neuborn

Examples of shopping cart in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Now on sale for nearly 40 percent off for Prime members, the Iuga High-waist Yoga Pants have earned a spot in my shopping cart thanks to their mid-support compression fabric, stretchy design, and high-rise fit. —Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 28 Sep. 2025

Employees push shopping carts outside a Costco Wholesale warehouse store in Hawthorne, California, on August 27. —Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 Sep. 2025

Weeks before the closing announcement, blame fell on the store’s lack of shopping carts, the closure of self-checkout lanes and a visible rise in shoplifting and petty crime. —Mars King, Twin Cities, 17 Sep. 2025

Footage of the scene shared by 7News showed the car over the break line and in close proximity to another vehicle, with debris on the ground and a shopping cart nearby. —Abigail Adams, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1934, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for shopping cart

• counterpart
• apart
• depart
• flowchart
• forepart
• impart
• pushcart
• rampart
• redstart
• restart
• subpart
• sweetheart