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

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.

In a 1986 photo taken in Crazy Prices Supermarket outside of Dublin, a baby has been tossed in the seat of a well-stocked shopping cart like a consumer good.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026

Baby left in shopping cart in 1972 reunites with women who found her.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 13, 2026

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

From Slate • Jan. 27, 2026

But those considering adding stocks to their shopping cart on Black Friday may want to pause.

From Barron's • Nov. 28, 2025

There was a lady with a bunch of plastic flamingos sticking out of a shopping cart.

From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan

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