Trolley Meaning
/trˈɑli/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA trolley pole; a single-pole device for collecting electrical current from an overhead electrical line, normally for a tram/streetcar or a trolleybus.
nounA streetcar or light train.
Sentence Examples
You're off your trolley!
I'm waiting for the trolley.
Tom queued behind an old biddy with a full trolley.
CEFR Practice Quiz
At the supermarket, she pushed a ____ with wheels down the aisle.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She pushed the heavy shopping ____ through the busy supermarket, filling it with many fresh vegetables for the week today.
Word Origin & History
Early 19th century (1823) meaning "cart", of dialectal origin (Suffolk), probably from troll (“to trundle, roll”) + -ey (diminutive ending).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Gremlinesque behaviour might not be very obvious to an America, who would accept as perfectly natural the quaintly pixilated sayings and doings that are happening in subways, in trolleys, on buses, in bars at all times of the day and night."
— 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 107:
"About a shopping trolley, I thought I'd let ye know. Ya'd try to push it straight but it never seems ta go. Ya'd wobble through the car park, hopping off the cars. Anyone would think ya had a few auld jars."
— 2013 March 15, “The Shopping Trolley” (track 10), in Horsing Around, performed by Richie Kavanagh:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
At the supermarket, she pushed a ____ with wheels down the aisle.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She pushed the heavy shopping ____ through the busy supermarket, filling it with many fresh vegetables for the week today.