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

Then you are hit by another song, booming from a new performer and accompanied by the sound of his shopping cart rattling over the cobblestone street. —Addie Citchens, New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2026

At the Community Food Share near Boulder, Colorado, there is a traffic jam of shopping carts. —Lee Cowan, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026

Save room in your shopping cart for these items—from flashy kitchenware to can't-miss furniture pieces. —Maddie Topliff, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Mar. 2026

Another turtle the aquarium is treating was found bound to a shopping cart and stroller by fishing line. —Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 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