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

Coral Springs Police said 44-year-old Matthew John Ryan rammed a shopping cart with a dog inside into the menorah at Chabad of Coral Springs on North University Drive, knocking it completely over. — Bri Buckley, CBS News, 19 Oct. 2026

Officers found the youth hiding behind shopping carts at the front of the store off Interstate 77 Exit 36, according to a Mooresville Police Department news release Friday. — Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 16 Oct. 2026

It’s been 18 years since anyone’s heard the wheels of a shopping cart squeaking across the cement floor of Dillons in Shawnee. — Kansas City Star, 15 Oct. 2026

All that’s left to do is add the actual product to your online shopping cart. — Katie Decker-Jacoby, StyleCaster, 6 Oct. 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