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

Dorothea, a 10-year-old Chihuahua mix, was found June 16 atop a shopping cart in the middle of a canal, according to Arizona Humane Society. —Jose R. Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic, 31 Oct. 2024

Halloween and Christmas decorations line the entryway, next to the 30 shopping carts that no one is using. —Alena Botros, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2024

The big problem with traditional wheelchairs is the two front caster wheels, which passively swivel like the wheels of a shopping cart. —Ben Coxworth, New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2024

While suede jackets took over our shopping carts earlier this season, suede skirts are now dominating the scene. —Laura Jackson, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1934, in the meaning defined at sense 1