covered wagon

American  

noun

1. a large wagon with a high, bonnetlike canvas top, especially such a wagon used by pioneers to transport themselves and their possessions across the North American plains during the westward migrations in the 19th century.

2. British Railroads. a boxcar.

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covered wagon British  

noun

1. a large wagon with an arched canvas top, used formerly for prairie travel

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covered wagon Cultural  

1. A typical conveyance for settlers moving west with their belongings. It was drawn by horses or oxen and equipped with a canvas cover, often supported by hoops, to keep off rain.

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Etymology

Origin of covered wagon

An Americanism dating back to 1735–45

Example Sentences

On July 14, it shared a painting depicting a young 19th-century couple in a covered wagon, craning over an infant, the plains and mountains extending into the distance behind them.

From Slate • Aug. 14, 2025

Srinivasan, who is Indian American, said that although the covered wagon painting is not offensive in and of itself, the timing of the Homeland Security post raises questions about the government’s intended meaning.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 20, 2025

Perhaps I was the chosen one who would carry these tales into a new generation, passing down stories of America’s wine-sloshed aunts like I was spinning a yarn in the back of a covered wagon.

From Salon • Jan. 10, 2025

I doubted Dryden would last very long in a covered wagon out on the prairie.

From BBC • Sep. 19, 2024

At Yale, Lawrence’s closest research collaborator was Jesse Beams, another rural Midwesterner—his grandparents had migrated from West Virginia to Kansas in a covered wagon.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik