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 kittens were found beneath a shopping cart in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., according to Jessica Gercke, a representative from the Helen Woodward Animal Center, in an email to PEOPLE. —Toria Sheffield, People.com, 26 May 2025

The Iraq war veteran sweated through his white T-shirt, heaving his belongings into a shopping cart. —Quil Lawrence, NPR, 26 May 2025

Two newborn kittens have been left fighting for their lives after being found zip-tied together beneath a shopping cart at a shopping center in Santa Fe, California. —Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 May 2025

Someone zip-tied four newborn kittens together and left them — covered in fleas and with their umbilical cords still attached — abandoned in a shopping cart. —Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 May 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