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

The Chatham County Police Department said Schroeder kicked Middleton's shopping cart as the latter exited the store. —Liam Quinn, PEOPLE, 5 Nov. 2025

Dubbed Cart Assistant, the agent can be used across retailers’ websites through Instacart’s Storefront Pro or integrated into the company’s AI-powered shopping carts in-store, according to a release. —Jaures Yip, CNBC, 4 Nov. 2025

The website is set up for recipients to request a shopping cart of food from Instacart and via PayPal. —Betty Lin-Fisher, USA Today, 4 Nov. 2025

E-commerce transactions are managed end-to-end without friction, from building a shopping cart and applying discounts to arranging delivery and processing returns. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 3 Nov. 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