trolley

See also: Trolley

English

Trolley (sense 2)

Trolley (sense 6)

Alternative forms

• trolly

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒli

Noun

trolley (plural trolleys or trollies)

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.
3. (US) A streetcar or light train.

   Synonyms: (UK) tram, trolley car

   • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 107:

     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.

4. (US, colloquial) A light rail, tramway, trolleybus or streetcar system.
5. A truck from which the load is suspended in some kinds of cranes.

   Synonyms: crane trolley, traveling trolley

6. A truck which travels along the fixed conductors in an electric railway, and forms a means of connection between them and a railway car.
8. (Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland) A cart or shopping cart; a shopping trolley.
   • 2013 March 15, “The Shopping Trolley” (track 10), in Horsing Around‎^[1], performed by Richie Kavanagh:

     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.

9. Clipping of flatbed trolley.
10. (British) A hand truck.
11. (British) A soapbox car.
12. (British) A gurney, a stretcher with wheeled legs.
13. (Philippines) A handcar.

Hyponyms

• (streetcar): interurban

Derived terms

• banquet trolley
• catering trolley
• crash trolley
• drinks trolley
• hostess trolley
• off one's trolley
• pump-trolley
• pump trolley
• shopping trolley
• tea trolley
• trolley bus
• trolleybus
• trolley cloth
• trolley dash
• trolley dolly
• trolley jack
• trolley lace
• trolley park
• trolley problem
• trolley trasher

 

Descendants

• → Catalan: tròlei
• → French: trolley
  • → Romanian: troleu
• → German: Trolley
• → Welsh: troli

Translations

device for collecting electrical current from an overhead electrical line

• Czech: trolej (cs) f
• Finnish: tankovirroitin
• French: trolley (fr) m, perche (fr) f

crane trolley

• Finnish: vaunu (fi)
• German: Krankatze f, Laufkatze (de) f
• Polish: wózek suwnicowy m

shopping cart — see shopping cart

hand truck — see hand truck

soapbox car — see soapbox car

gurney — see gurney

handcar — see handcar

tram — see tram

Verb

trolley (third-person singular simple present trolleys, present participle trolleying, simple past and past participle trolleyed or trollied)

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).

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English trolley.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɔ.lɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

trolley m (plural trolleys)

1. (anglicism) trolley pole
2. (anglicism) trolleybus

Descendants

• → Romanian: troleu

Further reading

• “trolley”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English trolley.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾolei/ [ˈt̪ɾo.lei̯]
• Rhymes: -olei

Noun

trolley m (plural trolleys or trolley)

1. (anglicism) Alternative spelling of trole

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.