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

Additional wire was located in a shopping cart near an unsecured mall entrance. — Vince Basada, Sacbee.com, 5 Sep. 2026

Just over four months later, Google introduced Universal Cart, an intelligent shopping cart that allows consumers to add products from different retailers and purchase them through a single checkout. — Paulina Likos, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2026

DiGuglielmo eventually got out of his car and left it in the through lane, grabbed a shopping cart and went inside the store. — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 3 Sep. 2026

Trust us, these deserve a spot in your digital shopping cart this season. — Better Homes & Gardens, 2 Sep. 2026

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