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trolley
[trol-ee]
noun
plural
trolleysa pulley or truck traveling on an overhead track and serving to support and move a suspended object.
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.
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.
a small truck or car operated on a track, as in a mine or factory.
a serving cart, as one used to serve desserts.
Chiefly British.any of various low carts or vehicles, as a railway handcar or costermonger's cart.
verb (used with or without object)
to convey or go by trolley.
trolley
/ ˈٰɒɪ /
noun
a small table on casters used for conveying food, drink, etc
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
(in a hospital) a bed mounted on casters and used for moving patients who are unconscious, immobilized, etc
See trolleybus
See trolley car
a device that collects the current from an overhead wire ( trolley wire ), third rail, etc, to drive the motor of an electric vehicle
a pulley or truck that travels along an overhead wire in order to support a suspended load
a low truck running on rails, used in factories, mines, etc, and on railways
a truck, cage, or basket suspended from an overhead track or cable for carrying loads in a mine, quarry, etc
slang
mentally confused or disorganized
insane
verb
(tr) to transport (a person or object) on a trolley
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of trolley1
Idioms and Phrases
off one's trolley,
in a confused mental state.
insane.
He's been off his trolley for years, but his family refuses to have him committed.
Example Sentences
The gibbons, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, were concealed in a plastic crate placed inside the passenger's trolley bag.
Another patient reported waiting "12 hours in a corridor on a trolley".
Tesco has also introduced giant trolley scales at its Gateshead store, which prompted a similarly mixed response from shoppers earlier this year.
"Before, I'd have needed a trolley for £40 worth of food. Now, it doesn't even fill a basket, you can carry that much in your arms."
"In the past before Brexit we were bringing in trolley loads of roses every week, now we're having to source them from different places and there isn't the same selection," he said.
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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.
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