cart
noun
a heavy two-wheeled vehicle, commonly without springs, drawn by mules, oxen, or the like, used for the conveyance of heavy goods.
cart
American
[kahrt]
/ kɑrt /
noun
-
carts
plural
-
a heavy two-wheeled vehicle, commonly without springs, drawn by mules, oxen, or the like, used for the conveyance of heavy goods.
-
a light two-wheeled vehicle with springs, drawn by a horse or pony.
-
any small vehicle pushed or pulled by hand.
-
Obsolete. a chariot.
verb (used with object)
-
carts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
carted,
past participle, past
-
carting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
carts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
carted,
past participle, past
-
carting
present participle
verb phrase
idioms
-
put the cart before the horse, to do or place things in improper order; be illogical.
-
on the water cart, wagon.
cart
1
British
/ kɑːt /
noun
-
a heavy open vehicle, usually having two wheels and drawn by horses, used in farming and to transport goods
-
a light open horse-drawn vehicle having two wheels and springs, for business or pleasure
-
any small vehicle drawn or pushed by hand, such as a trolley
-
to reverse the usual or natural order of things
verb
-
(usually tr) to use or draw a cart to convey (goods, etc)
to cart groceries
-
(tr) to carry with effort; haul
to cart wood home
CART
2
British
abbreviation
cart
3
British
/ kɑːt /
noun
cart
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cartsimple
-
cartssimple
-
have cartedperfect
-
has cartedperfect
-
am cartingprogressive
-
are cartingprogressive
-
is cartingprogressive
-
have been cartingperfect progressive
-
has been cartingperfect progressive
Past
-
cartedsimple
-
had cartedperfect
-
was cartingprogressive
-
were cartingprogressive
-
had been cartingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cart
before 900; Middle English cart ( e ), Old English cræt (by metathesis); cognate with Old Norse kartr cart
Explanation
A cart is a vehicle with wheels that's pulled by an animal, a person, or by another vehicle. You could attach a cart to your dog and teach him to pull it around. The typical cart is hooked up to a draft horse or another farm animal. Other kinds of carts include hand carts, which can be stacked with heavy items and easily pushed or pulled by people; and golf carts, which are open vehicles that are powered by electricity or gasoline. When you cart something around, you lug it or transport it. The word cart comes from a Scandinavian source, probably the Old Norse kartr.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In Bang Kapi locals used ice-boxes and other floating plastic containers to cart supplies from nearby markets and supermarkets, AFP reporters saw.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
"She would add things to the cart and say, 'I will order this later'," he recalls.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
But repeated prompts led the bot to rank products in a shopping cart based on the reliability of such labels, with Sparky calling its earlier rebuff “overly cautious.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
You can watch your future grocery bill in transit: The stage of the producer-price index furthest from your cart rose 3.2% in May, the biggest jump since 2009.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
It was, at first sight, a horned horse: larger than a cart horse, but thinner, gaunt: its ribs were visible, and its skull was vivid beneath its skin.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
During his ownership of the property, the racing legend has enjoyed an impressive career across an array of auto arenas, including Nascar, IndyCar, CART, and the Dakar Rally.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 20, 2025
Goldman Sachs and J.P.Morgan are the lead underwriters for the offering, Instacart said, adding that its shares would be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol "CART."
From Reuters ● Sep. 7, 2023
But the F1 sanctioning fees were exorbitant and promoters rebranded the race for CART, which was the U.S.-based open-wheel series at the time.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2022
In bringing the series to Las Vegas, Bernard hoped to jolt the series back to life after more than decade of lagging crowds and ratings spawned by the series’ bitter 1996 split with CART.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 15, 2011
Nonsince, Jeames,' says she; 'it's Saturday, & I came in, in THE CART.'
From Burlesques by William Makepeace Thackeray
The dealer explained there was a retirement community of Italian immigrants where many residents drove golf carts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
A woman with two shopping carts told me she’s been homeless for 5½ years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
He puts the authorities' leniency down partly to the tidy and spartan way he operates his business: a bench, umbrella, card reader and table that he folds up and carts away each evening.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
The game is played in bumper-car-like carts while you wield a lacrosse-style stick and try to score, and within minutes everyone in our group was laughing.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
Fires raged and the roads out of Saigon were jammed with refugees and water buffaloes pulling overloaded carts and crying children searching for parents and retreating South Vietnamese soldiers.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
I tracked down two New Jersey record stores whose sites said they’d purchase all types of albums, so we carted ours to them.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
Washington lost Jayden Daniels to an elbow injury, and Chicago’s Caleb Williams was carted off the field in tears, although that hamstring injury apparently wound up less serious than originally feared.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
What made this family silver different from all the other items I have carted away?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
After the early loss of Phil Salt, Brook carted Prince Yadav for two consecutive mighty leg-side sixes and followed with a trademark lofted cover drive into the stands off Axar.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
A house was rented, a matron hired, and provisions carted to the door of this new city institution.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
But when a delivery service is carting cash around town instead of a lukewarm burrito, the stakes and security concerns, obviously, are higher.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 14, 2025
She compares carting the demo reel around Hollywood to “what the Avon lady goes through.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
"He absolutely showed that he was scared by the explosions but he got used to it and was carting artillery around the place in big boxes."
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2024
Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn say the men also embezzled from unions and rigged bids in the demolition and carting industries between 2017 and 2021.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 8, 2023
He’s marching up the tracks carting another two buckets.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
