Small cart wheeled several feet (5)
I believe the answer is:
yards
'several feet' is the definition.
(3 feet in 1 yard)
'small cart wheeled' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'cart' becomes 'dray' (a cart without sides for delivering heavy loads).
'wheeled' says the letters should be written backwards (letters are wheeled back).
's'+'dray'='sdray'
'sdray' written backwards gives 'YARDS'.
(Other definitions for yards that I've seen before include "Lots of material" , "Courts" , "Measures; enclosures" , "belonging to investigators" , "One thousand seven hundred and sisty in a mile" .)