on the wagon

wag·on

[wag-uhn]
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.
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an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
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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.
a.
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.
b.
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
wag·on·less, adjective

Synonyms
1. cart, van, wain, truck, dray, lorry.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
wagon or waggon (ˈwæɡən) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
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.  chiefly (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
 
—vb
9.  (tr) to transport by wagon
 
[C16: from Dutch wagenwain]
 
waggon or waggon
 
—n
 
—vb
 
[C16: from Dutch wagenwain]
 
'wagonless or waggon
 
—adj
 
'waggonless or waggon
 
—adj

Wagon or Waggon (ˈwæɡən) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
the Wagon another name for the Plough
 
Waggon or Waggon
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

wagon
1523, from M.Du. wagen, waghen, from P.Gmc. *wagnaz (cf. O.E. wægn, Mod.Eng. wain, O.S., O.H.G. wagan, O.N. vagn, O.Fris. wein, Ger. Wagen), from PIE *woghnos, from *wegh- "to carry, to move" (cf. Skt. vahanam "vessel, ship," Gk. okhos, L. vehiculum, O.C.S. vozu "carriage, chariot," Rus. povozka,
Lith. vazis "a small sledge," O.Ir. fen, Welsh gwain "carriage, cart;" see weigh). In Du. and Ger., the general word for "a wheel vehicle;" Eng. 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 Amer.Eng. 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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

on the wagon definition


  1. mod.
    not now drinking alcoholic liquor. : How long has John been on the wagon this time?
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

wagon definition


  1. n.
    the police wagon. : I called the wagon. It'll come and get these two thugs in about fifteen minutes.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Easton
Bible Dictionary

Wagon definition


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.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

on the wagon

Abstaining from drinking alcoholic beverages, as in Don't offer her wine; she's on the wagon. This expression is a shortening of on the water wagon, referring to the horse-drawn water car once used to spray dirt roads to keep down the dust. Its present meaning dates from about 1900. The antonym off the wagon, used for a resumption of drinking, dates from the same period. B.J. Taylor used it in Extra Dry (1906): "It is better to have been on and off the wagon than never to have been on at all."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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