Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to expose a whore in a cart, driving her through the streets for public humiliation; thus carting n. (see cit. 1785); carted adj.

1593		Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew I i: bap.: Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure. gre.: To cart her rather: she’s too rough for me.
1604		Marston Malcontent V i: By this means she is better known to the stinkards than if she had been five times carted.
1611		J. Cook Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xv: Out of the Almes-basket, where Charitie appeares In likenesse of a peece of stinking Fish, Such as they beat Bawdes with when they are Carted.
c.1618		Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry (1632) III i: I will rather choose a Spittle sinner Carted an age before, though three parts rotten.
a.1625		Beaumont & Fletcher Love’s Cure IV iii: You hang up them that are far less Delinquents, A simple Shop-keeper’s carted for a Bawd.
1630		J. Taylor ‘A Bawd’ Works (1869) II 101: Who can produce out of any record, that a Bawd was euer carted for playing the Whore?
1664		S. Butler Hudibras Pt II canto 1 line 81: Democritus ne’er laugh’d so loud, To see Bawds carted through the crowd.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 125: At the ensuing Sessions, Mrs Craftsby the Bawd received the Sentence of Carting; Mrs Wheedle and her gallant, of being Carted to Tyburn, where they ended their wretched lives.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Carted-Whore, Whipt publickly, and packt out of Town.
1704		Theatre of Ingenuity 45: A Carted Bawd pelted with rotten Eggs on a Shrove-Tuesday.
1725		B. Mandeville An Essay upon Whoring iv: What better could we expect from Your Carting of Bawds.
1735		Pope ‘Satires of Dr. Donne’ Works II 138: Bearing like asses, and more shameless farre Than carted whores.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1741		Secret Hist. of Betty Ireland (9 edn) 27: The Justices [...] ordered Betty to be carted from the Gatehouse in Westminster, to Charing-cross, which Sentence she suffered.
1748–49		Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 49: He went on to talk of [...] Indictments for keeping a disorderly house, Pillory, Carting, and the whole process of that nature.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Carting, the punishment formerly indicted on bawds, who were placed in a tumbrel or cart, and led through a town, that their persons might be known.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Carting. A Punishment formerly inflicted on Procuresses.
1803		‘C. Caustic’ Petition Against Tractorising Trumpery 30: They to Tyburn swore they’d cart him.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 236: Yes, you jade, you shall be carted for bawd and conjure.

2. (Anglo-Ind.) to carry a young woman around town in a carriage for a week or so prior to her marriage.

1829		‘Sir Toby Rendrag’ Poems 46: The meaning of being Gigg’d is to be driven about the course for a week or ten days, previous to entering the silken noose, to the stare and gratulation of an admiring public. Some wits have called this being carted!
1841		F.J. Bellew ‘Memoirs of a Griffin’ in Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register Nov. 158: ‘Capital,’ said the colonel, who was in a bantering humour; ‘why, Prattle tells me it’s all settled, license written for, and that you are going to cart her immediately ha! ha! ha!’ [footnote: A strong phrase for driving a lady out in a buggy; in India, looked upon as symptomatic of an approaching matrimonial crisis].
1865		‘Mr Carlisle’ Stray Leaves : After such an engagement it is usual for the lovers to drive out together, or to be carted [...] when all the world understunds that the affair is settled.

3. to carry, to drag; thus cart away, cart out etc.

1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 218: It had all been carted up from Melbourne.
1898		Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 12: He carted her off in a cab, there and then, to his governor’s office.
1901–02		H. Lawson (?) ‘Drifting Apart’ in Roderick (1972) 604: We always carted them [i.e. children] round the town with us.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 34: ’N’ if he does cart yeh out Sundee, bet yer boots he on’y goes a walkin’ distance.
1940		J. MacLaren-Ross ‘A Bit of a Smash in Madras’ Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 272: After they’d carted the two coolies off to hospital, the inspector came [...] to see me.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 11 Mar. [synd. cartoon strip] By cripes [...] th’ captain can cart his blanky life preservers ashore isself!!
1953		A. Buckeridge Jennings’ Diary 80: Somebody’s very decently saved you the fag of carting them all the way upstairs.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 161: ’Sposing I sat down in the street and got carted off by the law.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 29: He had carted the body-builder/sociologist to Paris to seduce him, only to discover he was a lousy lay.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 39: Bobby was still telling me, they’re carting me off to Norfolk, I shouldn’t worry about anything because he will get me out.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 12: Carted Abdul off to outside hospital.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 5: He’d whack it all in an extra big Head bag and cart it up through Priory Wood to Freddie Woan’s.

4. in fig. use, to punish, to make someone suffer; usu. in passive as carted.

1894

J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 163: I was very nearly ‘carted’ twice over this little affair.