a carriage with two wheels, drawn commonly by horses, and used to carry heavy goods, &c. The word seems formed from the French charrette, or the Latin carreta, a diminutive of carrus. See MECHANICS, Wheel-carriages.

Carts of War, a peculiar kind of artillery anciently in use among the Scotch. In an act of parliament passed in 1456 they are thus described: "It is thought speidfull, that the king may request to certain of the great burrows of the land that are of any might, to make carts of weir, and in ilk cart twa gunnies, and ilk ane to have twa chalmers, with the remnant of the graith that effects thereto, and an command man to shut thame." By another act passed in 1471, the prelates and barons are commanded to provide such carts of war against their old enemies the English.