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

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

“That was such a hard time,” Girma gushes, as if Morgan, the most experienced player on the U.S. women’s World Cup team, rode to games in a covered wagon.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2023

The area near Donner Pass, a famously bad place to get stuck in the snow in a covered wagon, had its snowiest March since 1952.

From Slate • Apr. 3, 2023

To give the cradle a little bit of bounce, he tied the ropes to two cultivator springs and hung the whole contraption to the bows inside the covered wagon.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls