Definition
nounA small, open, wheeled vehicle, drawn or pushed by a person or animal, often with two wheels on one axle, more often used for transporting goods than passengers.
nounA small motor vehicle resembling a car; a go-cart.
Sentence Examples
Planning the wedding before proposing is putting the cart before the horse.
Don't you think you're putting the cart before the horse?
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Old Norse kartrbor.
Proto-Germanic *kradô
Proto-West Germanic *krat
Old English crætder.
Middle English cart
English cart
From Middle English cart, kart, from Old Norse kartr (“wagon; cart”), merged with native Old English cræt (“a chariot; cart”), from Proto-Germanic *krattaz, *krattijô, *kradō, from Proto-Indo-European *gret- (“tracery; wattle; cradle; cage; basket”), from *ger- (“to turn, wind”).
Cognate with West Frisian kret (“wheelbarrow for hauling dung”), Dutch krat, kret (“crate; wheelbarrow for hauling dung”), German Krätze (“basket; pannier”). Wider cognates include Sanskrit ग्रन्थ (grantha, “a binding”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
""You had better cart in your crops! To-morrow it'll be snowing!""
— 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 259:
"On August 4, 1927, Della was carted away to the Norwalk State Hospital, suffering from acute myocarditis"
— 2001, Donald Spoto, chapter 2, in Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, page 18:
"Africans themselves practised slavery and an organised trade carted off African slaves to Middle Eastern countries while Europeans were still huddling in caves."
— 2012, Lindsay Rae, Ashley Clements, Sarah Marland, World Poverty for Dummies, →ISBN:
"Everything was carted off to the dump by Buddy."
— 2012, Paul Lee, Vignettes, →ISBN, page 197: