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 safety wheels are spring-loaded and pivot fully, just like a real shopping cart. —Bestreviews, Mercury News, 4 Aug. 2025

Weeks before the closing announcement, blame fell on the store’s lack of shopping carts, the closure of self-checkout lanes and a visible rise in shoplifting and petty crime. —Gloria Ngwa, Twin Cities, 1 Aug. 2025

Someone had left the dog in a shopping cart on the unbarricaded roof, putting the pet at risk of rolling off the high spot. —Kelli Bender, People.com, 31 July 2025

The cat then bolted toward a row of shopping carts and disappeared into the undercarriage of a truck. —Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 July 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