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

Next door to the Moores, an unhappy young couple had rented a room on the first floor of an ancient duplex, a house with debris in the yard that included bedsprings and shopping carts. —Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025

The city of San Jose and Mayor Matt Mahan had sponsored the bill, lamenting how the longstanding rules handcuffed their ability to address the thousands of shopping carts left on city streets and in its waterways. —Devan Patel, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025

Pottery Barn’s fall decor launched recently, and one familiar face is filling shopping carts once again. —Isabella Milano, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 Oct. 2025

The Barn Jacket The barn jacket that dominated our spring shopping carts is back and better than ever for fall. —Cortne Bonilla, Vogue, 8 Oct. 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