trolley

Etymology

Early 19th century (1823) meaning "cart", of dialectal origin (Suffolk), probably from troll (“to trundle, roll”) + -ey (diminutive ending).

noun

  1. A trolley pole; a single-pole device for collecting electrical current from an overhead electrical line, normally for a tram/streetcar or a trolleybus.
  2. (US) A streetcar or light train.
    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
  3. (US, colloquial) A light rail, tramway, trolleybus or streetcar system.
  4. A truck from which the load is suspended in some kinds of cranes.
  5. A truck which travels along the fixed conductors in an electric railway, and forms a means of connection between them and a railway car.
  6. (Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland) A cart or shopping cart; a shopping trolley.
    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. 2013-03-15, “The Shopping Trolley” (track 10), in Horsing Around, performed by Richie Kavanagh
  7. (Britain) A hand truck.
  8. (Britain) A soapbox car.
  9. (Britain) A gurney, a stretcher with wheeled legs.
  10. (Philippines) A handcar.

verb

  1. To bring to by trolley.
  2. To use a trolley vehicle to go from one place to another.
  3. To travel by trolley (streetcar, trolleybus or light train).

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