nounplural noun trolleys

• 1British A large metal basket or frame on wheels, used for transporting heavy or large items, such as supermarket purchases or luggage at an airport or railway station.

  ‘The group's services range from treatments to harden metals for aero-engines to providing the shine on metals used in supermarket trolleys.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘We pay for trolleys in airports and supermarkets, and for parking we either scratch a permit, ‘pay and display’ or ‘park and ride’.’
  • ‘Supermarket trolleys and burned-out cars replaced the brightly coloured barges that once proudly carried grain, coal, wool, salt and timber.’
  • ‘Clearing customs at an airport terminal, he insists on pushing a luggage trolley.’
  • ‘Many parents use car seats to carry their babies or secure them in their pushchairs and supermarket trolleys.’
  • ‘For some reason, the papers were wheeled around the hall in supermarket trolleys.’
  • ‘Retailers recognise that some shoppers have no other way of getting their groceries home, so they won't stop people pushing trolleys out of supermarket car parks.’
  • ‘Supermarkets have experienced a surge in the theft of trolleys and shopping baskets since the introduction of the plastic bags tax earlier this year.’
  • ‘Just like supermarket trolleys, baggage trolleys have a mind of their own.’
  • ‘When it came to buckling the children into the supermarket trolley, belt use was in direct proportion to attractiveness.’
  • ‘I saw several people who, like him, appeared to have their worldly possessions stacked neatly on a metal trolley.’
  • ‘Many of us spend weekend afternoons pushing the trolley round the supermarket or ambling through a shopping mall.’
  • ‘Choose a trolley rather than a basket as this offers you more mobility.’
  • ‘It is possible they used a metal trolley to move the stolen goods, which was abandoned outside the building.’
  • ‘There was no wheelchair available and she was advised to use an airport trolley.’
  • ‘Supermarket trolleys can cause back strain.’
  • ‘The government knows older people will be forced out of decent jobs and forced into menial jobs like filling supermarket trolleys and opening doors for a pittance.’
  • ‘Supermarket trolleys are well-known for their irritating tendency to veer from the straight and narrow, apparently at their own whim.’
  • ‘A shocking exposé of the British food industry that will make readers look seriously at the contents of their supermarket trolleys.’
  • ‘Activists went into the supermarkets, filled trolleys with pasta, and then left them at the checkout counter.’

  1. 1.1A small table on wheels or castors, typically used to convey food and drink.
     ‘Without missing a beat, another aide approached the table, wheeling a trolley heaped with food.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘One businessman was told there were too many people on board and they could not wheel trolleys with hot drinks as it was a safety hazard.’
     • ‘Satine turns to a trolley with food and drink on it, and picks up a bottle of Champagne from the ice bucket.’
     • ‘Two of them will get an opportunity to accompany the drinks trolley during the match!’
     • ‘In the restaurant, walking, talking robot trolleys will move around serving drinks.’
     • ‘Communal cooking in Israel will never excite the gourmet, but the meals which are wheeled to the tables on stainless steel trolleys are balanced and filling.’
     • ‘He took to the kitchen, smashing bowls and plates, turning over trolleys and pushing over tables.’
     • ‘Apart from the used items, the showroom also sports new custom-made articles like dinner tables and bar trolleys.’
     • ‘It's a small, intimate restaurant with just a few tables, a sweet trolley parked prominently in the centre of the room when you arrive.’
     • ‘Catering consists of a trolley offering drinks, tea, coffee and snacks.’
     • ‘We were just about to board when we were told a food trolley had activated one of the emergency chutes and they had to fly a part from Britain.’
     • ‘Then, last week, the system would not operate at all, so the staff were stuck outside the block unable to return to duty - unable to get the food trolleys in, so the meals were served late.’
     • ‘In their immaculate uniforms they go through safety procedures and tirelessly parade the aisles, pushing trolleys laden with drinks, meals and duty free.’
     • ‘And while the fare is more, you get more comfort - including toilets and a food trolley service.’
     • ‘A smartly dressed waitress pushed a trolley to the table and loaded it promptly.’
     • ‘The portable oven trolleys, found in each ward, ensure the food is hot, without burning, before serving.’
     • ‘Prisoners are fed breakfast, lunch and dinner by wardens who come down the corridors with ready-cooked food on trolleys but many inmates prefer to make their own meals in the evening.’
     • ‘Sebastian stood up and walked to a trolley of food that had been behind the door.’
     • ‘‘Thanks for your help,’ Keira said sarcastically, as she grabbed a metal tray off the food trolley.’
     • ‘A trolley is wheeled in from the kitchen, and any teachers that happen to be present at the time team together to dish out the meals.’
  2. 1.2A hospital bed on wheels for transporting patients.
     ‘Patients on trolleys line hospital corridors, queuing for days to access beds in a system strained by the sheer volume of demand.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The results of that study emerged after a survey revealed 140 patients were waiting on trolleys in hospitals and around the country yesterday.’
     • ‘As a result, ambulance crew were unable to answer emergency calls until normal hospital trolleys were found for patients.’
     • ‘During the same period the highest recorded number of patients on trolleys at the Mercy Hospital was 41.’
     • ‘This morning the corridors are crowded, there are patients even lying on trolleys outside the hospital waiting to be treated.’
     • ‘According to the Irish Nurses Organisation, more than 200 patients were on trolleys, awaiting beds, in hospitals around the country.’
     • ‘The organisation has begun to release daily figures which show that an average of 200 patients are left lying on hospital trolleys waiting for beds.’
     • ‘Patients were waiting on trolleys in hospital hallways.’
     • ‘The ward can take eight extra trolleys or beds and patients suffering from minor ailments will be placed there to free up beds in the hospital for flu patients.’
     • ‘It has also provided diagnostic equipment, beds and trolleys for the hospital.’
     • ‘Ambulances have been queuing up at the Emergency Department, waiting up to 90 minutes before they can get their patients from a trolley to a bed.’
     • ‘‘It's important that students know how to safely move a patient from the trolley back into bed,’ explains Nic.’
     • ‘She was in a lot of pain and discomfort but still she had to spend 23 hours on a hospital trolley before a bed was found.’
     • ‘He said the doors were designed to close slowly, and to stay open longer than a conventional lift, to enable the medical staff ample time to wheel the trolley and patient out of, or into, the lift.’
     • ‘The 30,000-strong nurses' union said it received reports of severe overcrowding, with dozens of patients on trolleys in the city's major acute hospitals.’
     • ‘It was no longer uncommon for patients to be lying on hospital trolleys for up to four days.’
     • ‘Patients are marooned on trolleys because there are no available beds even though there are plenty of beds available in private nursing homes.’
     • ‘Accident victims are being rushed between hospitals or left on trolleys for hours because of a desperate shortage of beds and staff.’
     • ‘Marcus is tied to a surgical trolley with thick leather straps, totally unable to move.’
     • ‘Mum was lying on a trolley, hooked up to various machines.’
• 2

  (also trolley wheel)

  A wheel attached to a pole, used for collecting current from an overhead electric wire to drive a tram.

  ‘In later years, the tarries were electrified, and poles held the trolley wire.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘They also had to replace the trolley pole when it escaped from the overhead wire.’

  Synonyms

  handcart, pushcart, barrow, wheelbarrow
• 3

  short for trolleybus or trolley car

  More example sentences

  • ‘Electric trolleys, which received their power from an overhead wire and returned it through the rails, provided the system that finally made the horse obsolete.’