[wag-uh
n] 
| 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. Big Dipper. |
| 5. | British. a railway freight car or flatcar. |
| 6. | a baby carriage. |
| 7. | Archaic. a chariot. |
| 8. | to transport or convey by wagon. |
| 9. | to proceed or haul goods by wagon: It was strenuous to wagon up the hill. Also, especially British, waggon. |
| 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 wagon, Slang. again drinking alcoholic beverages after a period of abstinence. |
| 14. | on the wagon, Slang. abstaining from alcoholic beverages. Also, on the water wagon; British, on the water cart. |
| wag·on (wāg'ən) n.
To transport or undergo transportation by wagon. [Middle English waggin, from Middle Dutch wagen; see wegh- in Indo-European roots.] |
on the wagon
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wagon
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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."