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.
Informal. station wagon.
a police van for transporting prisoners; patrol wagon.
The fight broke up before the wagon arrived.
(initial capital letter) Charles's Wain.
British. a railway freight car or flatcar.
Archaic. a chariot.
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.
fix someone's wagon, to get even with or punish someone.
He'd better mind his own business or I'll really fix his wagon.
on the wagon, abstaining from a current or former bad habit, as smoking, overeating, excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages, or taking drugs: Also on the water wagon; on the water cart.
She's been on the wagon for a month, now, so please don't offer her a drink.
off the / one's wagon,
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.
returning to an unhealthy or bad habit.
I’m usually on a diet, but sometimes I go off my wagon.
circle the wagons. circle.
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
a railway freight truck, esp an open one
a child's four-wheeled cart
a police van for transporting prisoners and those arrested
See station wagon
an obsolete word for chariot
informal no longer abstaining from alcoholic drinks
informal abstaining from alcoholic drinks
First recorded in 1505–15; from Dutch wagen; cognate with Old English wægn “farm wagon”; see wain
Anything can be a wagon, so long as it has wheels and can be pulled. Wagons are used for transporting goods, like grains from a farm, or your little sister who wants another ride around the block. The origin of wagon is the German weg, meaning “move, carry.” You’ll see horse-drawn wagons carrying vegetables, or a wagon pulled by a tractor moving bales of hay into a barn. A paddywagon is slang for a police van that brings suspected criminals to the station. If you “fall off the wagon” that means you started drinking alcohol again after being sober for a while. And when you “hitch your wagon to a star,” you pursue a major goal.
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It has survived French revolutionaries who wanted to use it to cover a wagon and Nazi soldiers who tried to move it to Berlin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
Later, as we prepare to leave for the shoot, he clocks my car, a rare station wagon, and dubs it “spec-TAC-u-lar.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
“If you can hitch your wagon to his horse,” Manson said, “who cares how long it takes?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Seventeen people have been injured after the wagon of a tourist train overturned in the Spanish town of Cártama.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
I unhook Belle’s harness, tie her to a tree close to the wagon and campfire.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The Bicentennial Wagon Train made a yearlong journey across the U.S., tracing old covered-wagon trails and arriving in Valley Forge, Pa., on July 4.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
He pleaded guilty to driving his Suzuki Wagon in excess of the 20mph limit in Acton, near his Shepherds Bush home, on 31 March last year.
From BBC ● Jan. 1, 2026
They impounded Robins’ G Wagon, which according to CBS was found in a body shop with some damaged parts already swapped out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2025
The Welcome Wagon rolled on to goaltender Joey Daccord, but he’d already hit the ice for practice.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 7, 2023
“And this button from a Wagon Lit tunic—how do you explain it?”
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
Ships were stranded for lack of horse-drawn wagons to carry away their cargo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
It would be easy to look at all of this — the card tables, homemade jingles, wagons stacked with brightly colored boxes — and see only an exceptionally cute American ritual.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
The locomotive was pulling the wagons from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, to Theale, near Reading, when the derailment occurred.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
In late July, Nguyen and her teenage volunteers dragged wagons of groceries provided by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s office to residents living in single-room occupancy hotels, or SROs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Innumerable land-hungry people with their wagons and animals fan out.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
