Etymology From Middle English whelbarwe; equivalent to wheel + barrow.
1
A small, one-wheeled (or rarely, two-wheeled) cart with handles at one end for transporting small loads.
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.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
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.1959 December 23, Richard Hope, “Narrow Gauge Landslip”, in Railway Magazine, page 866:
1 more example
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.2022 July 13, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Fareham Tunnel blockade aids landslip prevention”, in RAIL, number 961, page 32: