wheelbarrow
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wheelbarrowsimple
-
wheelbarrowssimple
-
have wheelbarrowedperfect
-
has wheelbarrowedperfect
-
am wheelbarrowingprogressive
-
are wheelbarrowingprogressive
-
is wheelbarrowingprogressive
-
have been wheelbarrowingperfect progressive
-
has been wheelbarrowingperfect progressive
Past
-
wheelbarrowedsimple
-
had wheelbarrowedperfect
-
was wheelbarrowingprogressive
-
were wheelbarrowingprogressive
-
had been wheelbarrowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wheelbarrow
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at wheel, barrow 1
Explanation
A wheelbarrow is a garden tool that's used to transport piles of dirt, weeds, or any other small load. If you have a big pile of sand to move, we recommend using a wheelbarrow. Most wheelbarrows are little carts with two long handles and one wheel in front, designed so that one person can more easily move a heavy load on their own. The very oldest evidence of wheelbarrows comes from ancient China, where a mural painted on the walls of a tomb around 118 AD includes a figure pushing a wheelbarrow. The word itself is a 14th-century variation on barrow, "flat frame with handles for carrying a load."
Vocabulary lists containing wheelbarrow
Chinese History - Introductory
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Chinese History - Middle School and High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
"I came on Tuesday. I live a 30-minute walk away, and I take the sacks back with that," he said, pointing to the wheelbarrow he acquired for the purpose.
From Barron's ● Feb. 16, 2026
It continued in both domestic and competitive forms with the help of the wheelbarrow, which arrived in the Middle Ages, presumably along with feudalism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
On the following day, Williams honored her sports skills by hosting volleyball, tennis, dodgeball, wheelbarrow races, and pickleball games.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 29, 2025
Some nights, she peeks outside her tent and sees the trucks unload the goods, and other times she can hear people hauling the produce onto the street by wheelbarrow or hand truck.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2025
They would have run his wheelbarrow into the deep end if he had not gone across.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
For every car washed, the workers walk 2km, carrying heavy water containers in wheelbarrows every time.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2026
Producers said the equipment, including a cement mixer and wheelbarrows, had been fitted with tracking devices and was recovered by police on Sunday.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2025
Performers are robed and instruments are carried on ramshackle wheelbarrows, setting up the transitory mood of the night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2025
“It’s being able to take a step back really from football and saying I’m a human first, how can I help other people,” he said after mixing and moving wheelbarrows full of cement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2025
The men unloaded trucks in the warehouses near the tracks or piled lumber in the lumberyards or pushed wheelbarrows for construction; the women cleaned out motel rooms along Highway 66.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
Groceries are wheelbarrowed to the front door by a deliveryman whose significance you don’t grasp until he turns his back, revealing the red prisoner stripe on his jacket.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2023
The meat is then meticulously divided into portions and wheelbarrowed away by each islander.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 29, 2018
He worked as a bellhop at a swanky hotel, wheelbarrowed asphalt and busted up fights as a bouncer at an Irish tavern.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 28, 2018
The post office is closed indefinitely, as are the stores except the Big Sur Deli, whose employees wheelbarrowed supplies across the bridge before it closed.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 21, 2017
When his $75 ran out, he wangled a $4.20-a-week job wheelbarrowing loads of coal into the university powerhouse, and ashes out of it.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
