Boston meaning
carriage
A shopping cart or grocery cart in eastern Massachusetts and nearby New England usage.
Uses your device’s built-in voice. Pronunciation is approximate because available voices and boston pronunciation vary.
Meaning
In eastern Massachusetts and parts of New England, carriage can mean the wheeled cart a store provides for carrying groceries or other purchases. The Dictionary of American Regional English documents this shopping-cart sense as now chiefly Northeastern, especially eastern Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Pronunciation and grammar
/ˈkærɪdʒ/ · noun
Everyday regional vocabulary; especially associated with eastern Massachusetts and nearby New England speech.
How it is used
A Boston-area speaker may say to grab a carriage at the store entrance or return the carriage after checkout. Shopping cart is the clearer nationwide term, and not every local speaker uses carriage.
Examples
Local: Grab a carriage before we start shopping.
Plain English: Grab a shopping cart before we start shopping.
Local: The carriages are lined up by the entrance.
Plain English: The shopping carts are lined up by the entrance.
Important context
Outside the local store context, carriage may first suggest a baby carriage or a horse-drawn vehicle. Say shopping cart if the listener seems unsure.