wheelbarrow

English

pushing a wheelbarrow

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *kʷel-

Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷléh₂

Proto-Germanic *hweulō

Old English hwēol

Middle English whel

Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der.

Proto-Germanic *barwijǭ

Proto-West Germanic *barwijā

Old English *bearwe

Middle English barwe

Middle English whelbarwe

English wheelbarrow

From Middle English whelbarwe; equivalent to wheel +‎ barrow.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwiːlbæɹəʊ/
• (General American, without the Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwilbæɹoʊ/
• (General American, Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwilbɛɹoʊ/

  • Audio (US, Mary–marry–merry merger):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈwiːlbæɹəʉ/, /ˈwiːlbæɹə/, /ˈwiːlbəɹə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈʍilbaɾo/
• (Wales, without the toe–tow merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwiːlbaɾou/

Noun

wheelbarrow (plural wheelbarrows)

2. A small, one-wheeled (or rarely, two-wheeled) cart with handles at one end for transporting small loads.

   Hypernym: barrow

   Coordinate terms: bag barrow, luggage barrow, sack barrow, sack truck, stack truck, hand truck, handtruck, cart, pushcart, dolly, trolley, hand trolley

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     One day I was out in the barn and he drifted in. I was currying the horse and he set down on the wheelbarrow and begun to ask questions.

   • 1959 December, Richard Hope, “Narrow Gauge Landslip”, in Railway Magazine, page 866:

     Space for the concrete batching plant was found some little distance down the line, and from here a total of 60 tons of concrete was despatched in a wheelbarrow on a railway trolley.

   • 2022 July 13, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Fareham Tunnel blockade aids landslip prevention”, in RAIL, number 961, page 32:

     The line was built by navvies using little more than wheelbarrows and shovels, with whatever material was close at hand, and the railway suffered from earthworks problems right from the start.

Derived terms

• drunk as a wheelbarrow
• wheelbarrow race

Related terms

• wheelbarrel (eggcorn)

Descendants

• → Kashubian: łiłbara (Canada, United States, New Zealand)
• → Mokilese: wilpahro
• → Welsh: whilber (South Wales)

Translations

small cart

• Afrikaans: kruiwa (af)
• Alabama: iswiha
• Albanian: karrocë dore f
• Amharic: ኩርኩር (kurkur)
• Arabic: عَرَبَة يَدَوِيَّة f (ʕaraba yadawiyya), عَجَلَة يَد f (ʕajalat yad)

  Moroccan Arabic: برويطة f (barwīṭa)

• Aragonese: carretillo f, carriola f
• Armenian: ձեռնասայլակ (hy) (jeṙnasaylak), հոպնակ (hy) (hopnak), սայլակ (hy) (saylak)
• Asturian: carretilla f
• Avar: тачка (tačka)
• Azerbaijani: əl arabası, daşka
• Bashkir: тачка (taçka)
• Basque: eskorga, orgatila (eu)
• Belarusian: та́чка f (táčka)
• Bengali: ঠেলাগাড়ি (ṭhelagaṛi), ঠেলা (bn) (ṭhela)
• Bislama: bruet, wilbara
• Breton: karrigell (br) f, kravazh-rodellek m
• Bulgarian: ръ́чна коли́чка f (rǎ́čna kolíčka), коли́чка (bg) f (kolíčka), багажна количка f (bagažna količka) (if two-wheeled)
• Burmese: တစ်ဘီး လက်တွန်းလှည်း (tacbhi: laktwan:hlany:)
• Carpathian Rusyn: фурик m (furyk)
• Catalan: carretó (ca) m
• Cayuga: sgá꞉t wʼęnihsgaǫ́꞉t enę́hgwitaʼ
• Cebuano: karetilya
• Chamorro: karetiya
• Cherokee: ᏓᏆᎴᎷ (daqualelu)
• Chichewa: wilibala
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 獨輪車 / 独轮车 (zh) (dúlúnchē) (single-wheeled cart), 手推車 / 手推车 (zh) (shǒutuīchē) (handcart), 轆轤車 / 辘轳车 (lùlúchē)

• Cornish: gravath ros f
• Corsican: carretta f, carriola f
• Crimean Tatar: şana
• Czech: kolečko (cs) n
• Danish: trillebør c
• Dutch: kruiwagen (nl) m or f
• Dzongkha: དོ་འཁོར་ལག་འཧུད། (do 'khor lag 'hud)
• Emilian: cariola f (Bolognese)
• Esperanto: ĉarumo (eo), puŝveturilo
• Estonian: aiakäru
• Faroese: børa f, hjólbøra f
• Finnish: kottikärry (fi)
• Franco-Provençal: tsaretta f
• French: brouette (fr) f
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: kroade

• Friulian: cariole f
• Gagauz: el arabası
• Galician: carretilla f, carreta f, cozo (gl) m
• Gallo: bërouette f
• Georgian: ურიკა (uriḳa)
• German: Schubkarre (de) f; (regional) Scheibtruhe (de) f

  Alemannic German: Schübkàrra, Schtooskàrra (Alsatian), Bënne f (Uri)

• Greek: καροτσάκι (el) n (karotsáki)

  Ancient Greek: μονότροχος m (monótrokhos), μονόκυκλος (monókuklos)

• Greenlandic: qamutaasat
• Gujarati: ઠેલો (gu) (ṭhelo)
• Hawaiian: huilapalala
• Hebrew: מְרִיצָה (he) f (m'ritsá)
• Hindi: व्हील बैरो (vhīl bairo)
• Hungarian: talicska (hu)
• Hunsrik: Schuppkarre m
• Icelandic: hjólbörur f pl
• Ido: brueto (io)
• Indonesian: gerobak tangan
• Ingrian: tacka
• Interlingua: carretta de mano
• Inuktitut: akiagautik (Inuttut)
• Irish: barra rotha m
• Italian: carriola (it) f
• Japanese: 手押し車 (ja) (ておしぐるま, teoshi-guruma, literally “handcart”), 猫車 (ja) (nekoguruma), 猫 (ja) (neko)
• Kannada: ಚಕ್ರದ ಕೈಬಂಡಿ ಯಾ ತಳ್ಳುಬಂಡಿ (cakrada kaibaṇḍi yā taḷḷubaṇḍi)
• Karachay-Balkar: тачка (taçka), арбачыкъ (arbaçıq)
• Kazakh: тәшке (täşke)
• Khmer: រទេះរុញ (rɔteh ruñ)
• Korean: 손수레 (sonsure), 수레 (ko) (sure), 일륜차(一輪車) (ko) (illyuncha)
• Kumyk: тачка (taçka)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: داشقە (daşqe)

• Kyrgyz: тачка (tacka)
• Ladin: graton m, careta f, ziviera f
• Lak: даву (dawu)
• Lao: ລໍ້ຊຸກ (lǭ suk), ລໍ້ (lǭ)
• Latin: pabō m
• Latvian: ķerra f
• Ligurian: carétta f, brueta f (Monégasque)
• Limburgish: krouwkaar f (Maastrichtian), sjörkar f, sjörreskar f, sjoepkar f
• Lithuanian: karutis m
• Low German: Schuuvkoor (nds) f
• Luxembourgish: Schubkar (lb)
• Macedonian: ра́чна ко́личка f (ráčna kólička), ко́личка (mk) f (kólička)
• Malagasy: laborety
• Malay: kereta sorong (ms)
• Manx: barrey queeylagh
• Māori: huripara
• Maranao: tibal, kariton
• Middle English: whelbarwe
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: түрдэг тэрэг (türdeg tereg) (pushcarts in general)

  Mongolian script: ᠲᠦᠷᠢᠳᠡᠭ
  ᠲᠡᠷᠭᠡ (türideg terge)

• Norman: chiviéthe f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: trillebår m or f

  Nynorsk: trillebår f

• Occitan: carriòl m, carriòla f, bariòta (oc) f (Provençal), baròta f (Vivaro-Alpin), carriòt f (Gascon)
• Oromo: gaarii
• Pannonian Rusyn: фурик m (furik), кочик m (kočik)
• Pashto: لاس ګاډی m (lâs gâḍay)
• Persian: فرغون (forġun), چرخ‌دستی (čarx-dasti)
• Piedmontese: carëta f
• Polish: taczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: carrinho de mão (pt) m
• Romanian: roabă (ro) f
• Romansh: charretta f
• Russian: та́чка (ru) f (táčka), теле́жка (ru) f (teléžka)
• Sami: rilˈlabōrat
• Sardinian: carriola f

  Campidanese: carrùcciu m

• Sassarese: carruzzu m
• Scots: hurl-barrow, hurlie-barrow
• Scottish Gaelic: bara m, bara-cuibhle m, bara-rotha m, bleodhan m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: та̏чке f pl, коли́ца f

  Latin: tȁčke (sh) f pl, kolíca (sh) f

• Shona: bhara
• Silesian: kara
• Sinhalese: වීල්බැරැක්කය (wīlbærækkaya)
• Slovak: fúrik m
• Slovene: samokolnica (sl)
• Somali: gaari gacan
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: kara f, karka f

• Spanish: carretilla (es) f, carrucha f (Mexico)
• Sranan Tongo: kroiwagi
• Swahili: ngolofimo
• Swedish: skottkärra (sv) c, rullebör (sv) c (Southern Swedish)
• Tagalog: bitlag
• Tajik: занбарғалтак (zanbarġaltak)
• Tamil: ஒற்றைச் சில்லு வண்டி (oṟṟaic cillu vaṇṭi) தள்ளுவண்டி (ta) (taḷḷuvaṇṭi)
• Tatar: тачка (taçqa)
• Thai: รถเข็นล้อเดียว (rót-kěn-lɔ́ɔ-diao), รถเข็นทราย (rót-kěn-saai)
• Tok Pisin: wilbaro
• Turkish: el arabası (tr)
• Turkmen: taçka
• Tuscarora: yakęhraʔθkwáhthaʔ, uʔθréhčreh neyęhčaráhkhwaʔ
• Udmurt: тачка (taćka)
• Ukrainian: та́чка f (táčka)
• Uzbek: zambilgʻaltak (uz), tachka (uz)
• Venetan: cariola f, carjol m, barela f
• Vietnamese: xe đẩy, xe cút kít (vi), xe rùa
• Volapük: bruät (vo)
• Walloon: berwete (wa) f
• Welsh:

  North Wales Welsh: berfa (cy) f

  South Wales Welsh: whilber (cy) f

• West Flemish: kortwoagn
• Yiddish: טאַטשקע f (tatshke)
• Zulu: ibhala (zu) class 5/6

Verb

wheelbarrow (third-person singular simple present wheelbarrows, present participle wheelbarrowing, simple past and past participle wheelbarrowed)

1. (transitive) To convey in a wheelbarrow.
2. (transitive, aviation) To cause the weight of an aeroplane to become concentrated around the nosewheel.