trolley

Sometimes trol·ly

[trol-ee]

noun

plural

trolleys 

1. trolley car.

2. a pulley or truck traveling on an overhead track and serving to support and move a suspended object.

3. a grooved metallic wheel or pulley carried on the end of a pole trolley pole by an electric car or locomotive, and held in contact with an overhead conductor, usually a suspended wire trolley wire, from which it collects the current for the propulsion of the car or locomotive.

4. any of various devices for collecting current for such a purpose, as a pantograph, or a bowlike structure bow trolley sliding along an overhead wire, or a device underground trolley for taking current from the underground wire or conductor used by some electric railways.

5. a small truck or car operated on a track, as in a mine or factory.

6. a serving cart, as one used to serve desserts.

7. Chiefly British.,  any of various low carts or vehicles, as a railway handcar or costermonger's cart.

verb (used with or without object)

trolleyed, trolleying 

1. to convey or go by trolley.

trolley

/ ˈtrɒlɪ /

noun

1. a small table on casters used for conveying food, drink, etc

2. a wheeled cart or stand pushed by hand and used for moving heavy items, such as shopping in a supermarket or luggage at a railway station

3. (in a hospital) a bed mounted on casters and used for moving patients who are unconscious, immobilized, etc

4. See trolleybus

5. See trolley car

6. a device that collects the current from an overhead wire ( trolley wire ), third rail, etc, to drive the motor of an electric vehicle

7. a pulley or truck that travels along an overhead wire in order to support a suspended load

8. a low truck running on rails, used in factories, mines, etc, and on railways

9. a truck, cage, or basket suspended from an overhead track or cable for carrying loads in a mine, quarry, etc

10. slang

    1. mentally confused or disorganized

    2. insane

verb

1. (tr) to transport (a person or object) on a trolley

Word History and Origins

Origin of trolley¹

First recorded in 1815–25; originally dialect; apparently akin to troll ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of trolley¹

C19: probably from _troll ¹

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. off one's trolley,

   1. in a confused mental state.

   2. insane.

      He's been off his trolley for years, but his family refuses to have him committed.

see off one's head (trolley).

Example Sentences

Products being shot that day are loaded onto a trolley and carted up to the park.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

As I wheeled my cleaning trolley round the corridors, I was acutely aware of pleading faces peering out of bedrooms, hoping for a few minutes of company and conversation.

Read more on BBC

Mark Hargreaves runs a trolley and tray manufacturing and export business in Peckham, south London.

Read more on BBC

In late July, Richard Quinones saw a woman lying in a ditch near the trolley tracks in Lemon Grove, northeast of San Diego.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Another challenge - tram curling - saw the drivers push a bicycle trolley so it halted at a specific spot.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• disk 
• drum 
• roller