What does cartload mean?
A cartload is the amount of goods that fills a cart — historically one of the basic units of haulage in agrarian and commercial life. Literally, it refers to whatever a horse-drawn or hand-drawn cart can carry: hay, timber, bricks, manure, produce. Figuratively, it has come to mean a great quantity of anything, as in 'a cartload of complaints' or 'a cartload of money', giving it a slightly colloquial, often mildly hyperbolic flavour. The word is transparently compound — 'cart' plus 'load' — and its meaning has stayed remarkably stable since Middle English. It appears most naturally in farming, trade, and historical contexts, but survives vividly in figurative speech on both sides of the Atlantic. Related compounds such as truckload, wagonload, and boatload show how English habitually builds quantity words from vehicles of burden.
The amount that a cart can hold; a full load of a cart.
"Each cartload of coal was weighed at the yard gate."
(Figurative) A very large quantity of something.
"She had a cartload of laundry to get through before noon."
Regular plural; common in both literal and figurative uses.
"Cartloads of grain arrived daily at the mill."
Before trucks, the cartload was the standard by which farmers, merchants, and armies measured moving the world — and we still say 'a cartload of trouble' centuries later.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cartload
Cartload is a straightforward English compound of 'cart', from Old Norse kartr (adopted into late Old English), and 'load', from Old English lād meaning a course or carrying. The compound is attested from the Middle English period, when carts were the dominant means of overland freight. It belongs to a productive family of vehicle-based measure words, including wagonload and, later, truckload and carload.
How cartload is actually used
Mostly informal-to-neutral register. The figurative sense ('a cartload of nonsense') is common in everyday speech, especially British English.
Easily confused with cartload
A carload is the amount a car (or railroad freight car) holds, while a cartload is specifically what a cart holds.