shopping cart

American

noun

a four-wheeled cart provided by a supermarket or other retail store for a customer's use in collecting purchases.

shopping cart British

noun

the usual US and Canadian word for shopping basket

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

shopping carts

plural

Etymology

Origin of shopping cart

First recorded in 1925–30

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.

The cast reunited one last time for a homage to the opening of the first “Jackass” movie in which the dudes barreled down a hill in an oversize, runaway shopping cart.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 29, 2026

A bus whooshes by, an unhoused man screams as he walks by with a shopping cart.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 9, 2026

He walked over to an empty shopping cart and strained to flip it over onto its side.

From Slate • Jan. 27, 2026

Users can then open their shopping cart in the DoorDash app and wrap up the purchase from a store there.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 17, 2025

Liam must have heard, because he waited for me, leaning against one of the rusted shopping cart stalls.

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023