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cart Definition

cart (kärt)

noun

  1. any of various small, strong, two-wheeled vehicles drawn by a horse, ox, pony, etc.
  2. a light, uncovered wagon or carriage
  3. a small, wheeled vehicle, drawn or pushed by hand

Etymology: ME < ON kartr (akin to OE cræt; orig., body of a cart made of wickerwork, hamper): for IE base see cradle

transitive verb

  1. to carry or deliver in or as in a cart, truck, etc.; transport
  2. to remove (someone or something) forcefully she was carted off to jail

Related Forms:

cart Idioms

put the cart before the horse

to deal with matters in reverse order, as because of illogical reasoning
cart Synonyms

cart

n.

truck, wheelbarrow, handbarrow, barrow, little wagon, wagon, carriage, tip cart, handcart, dolly, hand truck, tumbrel, gig, dray, two-wheeler, pushcart, gocart, gurney, shopping cart, dumpcart, dogcart; see also carriage 2, vehicle 1, wagon.

put the cart before the horse*

reverse, be illogical, err, turn things around; see mistake.

cart Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • motorise: If you can't walk - hire a motorized cart.
  • upset: But the man who could really upset the apple cart is Britain's Leon Haslam.
  • pull: The donkey, seeing the horse pulling an old cart full of cow manure cried out " Oh, what happened to you?
  • push: I had a friend called Henry he was 10 and pushed the cart along the mine.
  • draw: The earliest railways employed teams of horses to draw carts over the track.

Preposition: before

  • horse: But there is a serious danger of putting the cart before the horse.

Adjective modifier

  • one-horse: Having reached the bank on the Ganges, he would halt at the place allocated for parking and tying up one-horse carts.
  • two-wheeled: The chariots are small two-wheeled carts, which are pulled by two to four horses at great speed around the track.
  • four-wheeled: It also pushed a four-wheeled cart around on stage.
  • rickety: Teaching & Projects Abroad is based in the bustling city of Kathmandu full of jostling crowds, rickety bullock carts and noisy auto-rickshaws.
  • laden: The large doorway at the front of the building enabled fully laden carts to enter.

Modifies a noun

  • rut: The scale of activity is indicated by the presence of cart ruts leading into the excavated rubbish pits.
  • shed: I am sure there will be many binders left now retired in cart sheds throughout the land.
  • software: We now offer a complete range of shopping cart software to allow you to cost effectively set up a full on line service.

Noun used with modifier

  • shopping: Can I install a shopping cart with our hosting package?
  • horse-drawn: Each boulder was transported on a low horse-drawn cart.
  • bullock: We see still families in bullock carts on the roads moving to places of safety.
  • donkey: But in the main, the donkey carts are gone.
  • ox: In many parts of the world ox carts can exist alongside designer trainers, washing ells beside mobile phones.
  • golf: Sorry, there are no rental cars in San Pedro - only rental golf carts which are ideal on the sandy streets.
cart Quotes

I was set down from the carrier's cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began.

—Lee, Laurie

My old man said,'Follow the van, Don't dilly-dally on the way!' Off went the cart with the home packed in it, I walked behind with my old cock linnet. But I dillied and dallied, dallied and dillied, Lost the van and don't know where to roam. You can't trust the'specials' like the old time 'coppers' When you can't find your way home.

—Collins, Charles

For greatness is only the drayhorse that coaxes The built cart out; and where we go is reason. But genius is an enormous littleness, a trickling Of heart that covers alike the hare and the hunter.

—Patchen, Kenneth

And they brought an Owl, and a useful Cart, And a pound of Rice, and a CranberryTart, And a hive of silvery Bees. And they brought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws, And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws, and forty Bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree, And no end of Stilton Cheese.

—Lear, Edward