trolley
English
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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 trollies or trolleys)
- A trolley pole; a single-pole device for collecting electrical current from an overhead electrical line, normally for a tram/streetcar or a trolleybus.
- (US) A streetcar or light train.
- 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.
- Synonyms: (UK) tram, trolley car
- (US, colloquial) A light rail, tramway, trolleybus or streetcar system.
- A truck from which the load is suspended in some kinds of cranes.
- Synonyms: crane trolley, traveling trolley
- A truck which travels along the fixed conductors in an electric railway, and forms a means of connection between them and a railway car.
- (Australia, New Zealand, Britain) A cart or shopping cart; a shopping trolley.
- (Britain) A hand truck.
- (Britain) A soapbox car.
- (Britain) A gurney, a stretcher with wheeled legs.
- (Philippines) A handcar.
Hyponyms
- (streetcar): interurban
Derived terms
- off one's trolley
- trolleybus
- trolley cloth
- trolley dolly
- trolley jack
- trolley lace
- trolley problem
Descendants
- → Catalan: tròlei
- → French: trolley
- → Romanian: troleu
- → German: Trolley
- → Welsh: troli
Translations
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Verb
trolley (third-person singular simple present trolleys, present participle trolleying, simple past and past participle trolleyed or trollied)
- To bring to by trolley.
- To use a trolley vehicle to go from one place to another.
- 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)
- (anglicism) trolley pole
- (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)
- (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.