wagon

[wag-uh n] /ˈwæg ən/
noun
1.
any of various kinds of four-wheeled vehicles designed to be pulled or having its own motor and ranging from a child's toy to a commercial vehicle for the transport of heavy loads, delivery, etc.
2.
Informal. station wagon.
3.
a police van for transporting prisoners; patrol wagon:
The fight broke up before the wagon arrived.
4.
(initial capital letter) Astronomy. Charles's Wain.
See Big Dipper.
5.
British. a railway freight car or flatcar.
6.
a baby carriage.
7.
Archaic. a chariot.
verb (used with object)
8.
to transport or convey by wagon.
verb (used without object)
9.
to proceed or haul goods by wagon:
It was strenuous to wagon up the hill.
Also, especially British, waggon.
Idioms
10.
circle the wagons. circle (def 23).
11.
fix someone's wagon, Slang. to get even with or punish someone:
He'd better mind his own business or I'll really fix his wagon.
12.
hitch one's wagon to a star, to have a high ambition, ideal, or purpose:
It is better to hitch one's wagon to a star than to wander aimlessly through life.
13.
off the / one's wagon, Slang.
  1. again drinking alcoholic beverages after a period of abstinence:
    His failure to show up at work is one more sign that he’s fallen off the wagon again.
  2. returning to an unhealthy or bad habit:
    I’m usually on a diet, but sometimes I go off my wagon.
14.
on the wagon, Slang. abstaining from a current or former bad habit, as smoking, overeating, excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages, or taking drugs:
She's been on the wagon for a month, now, so please don't offer her a drink.
Also, on the water wagon; British, on the water cart.
Origin
1505-15; < Dutch wagen; cognate with Old English wægn wain
Related forms
wagonless, adjective
Synonyms
1. cart, van, wain, truck, dray, lorry.
Examples from the web for wagon
  • It is overwhelmingly the private sector that creates wealth, and pulls the wagon.
  • Shortly, however, the wheels started coming off his wagon.
  • They seem to have jumped on the band wagon of the popular sensationalist press.
  • The climate change band wagon has curtailed real science.
  • Well before everybody jumps on or jump off the ethanol band wagon, you may want to check on some solid facts.
  • They don't fall off the wagon they're pushed by an inner demon.
  • Have in her pregnancy, safe brought off with the oxen and wagon.
  • Moving in the enemy's country he travelled with a wagon train to carry his provisions and munitions of war.
  • There is scarcely anything else that can be hawked from a wagon that is not to be found, and at ridiculously low prices.
  • They had lain in a shed loft all summer, and the wagon had been to town a dozen times.
British Dictionary definitions for wagon

wagon

/ˈwæɡən/
noun
1.
any of various types of wheeled vehicles, ranging from carts to lorries, esp a vehicle with four wheels drawn by a horse, tractor, etc, and used for carrying crops, heavy loads, etc
2.
(Brit) a railway freight truck, esp an open one
3.
(US & Canadian) a child's four-wheeled cart
4.
(US & Canadian) a police van for transporting prisoners and those arrested
5.
(mainly US & Canadian) See station wagon
6.
an obsolete word for chariot
7.
(informal) off the wagon, no longer abstaining from alcoholic drinks
8.
(informal) on the wagon, abstaining from alcoholic drinks
verb
9.
(transitive) to transport by wagon
Derived Forms
wagonless, waggonless, adjective
Word Origin
C16: from Dutch wagenwain

Wagon

/ˈwæɡən/
noun
1.
the Wagon, another name for the Plough
Word Origin and History for wagon
n.

1520s, from Middle Dutch wagen, waghen, from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz (cf. Old English wægn, Modern English wain, Old Saxon and Old High German wagan, Old Norse vagn, Old Frisian wein, German Wagen), from PIE *woghnos, from *wegh- "to carry, to move" (cf. Sanskrit vahanam "vessel, ship," Greek okhos, Latin vehiculum, Old Church Slavonic vozu "carriage, chariot," Russian povozka, Lithuanian vazis "a small sledge," Old Irish fen, Welsh gwain "carriage, cart;" see weigh).

In Dutch and German, the general word for "a wheel vehicle;" English use is a result of contact through Flemish immigration, Dutch trade, or the Continental wars. It has largely displaced the native cognate, wain. Spelling preference varied randomly between -g- and -gg- from mid-18c., before American English settled on the etymological wagon, while waggon remained common in Great Britain. Wagon train is attested from 1810. Phrase on the wagon "abstaining from alcohol" is 1904, originally on the water cart.

Slang definitions & phrases for wagon

wagon

noun

A naval vessel (Navy fr WWI)

Related Terms

covered wagon, dead wagon, dog-wagon, fall off the wagon, fix someone's wagon, honey wagon, meat wagon, milk wagon, off the wagon, on the wagon, paddy wagon, pie wagon, rubberneck wagon, sex wagon


wagon in the Bible

Heb. aghalah; so rendered in Gen. 45:19, 21, 27; 46:5; Num. 7:3, 7,8, but elsewhere rendered "cart" (1 Sam. 6:7, etc.). This vehicle was used for peaceful purposes. In Ezek. 23:24, however, it is the rendering of a different Hebrew word, and denotes a war-chariot.

Idioms and Phrases with wagon

wagon

see: