on the wagon

Idioms  

1. 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.”

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Example Sentences

“That’s a happy tune,” Pa said as he tossed a pitchfork of hay up on the wagon, where I was waiting to spread it out.

From Literature

From up there on the wagon, if you looked a certain way, the two houses on the hill appeared to be a pair of eyes staring out from under a mop of red hair.

From Literature

People get all mad at us, but if you’re going to jump on the wagon for three weeks, which is what 90% of the population does, we’re not the place for you.

From The Wall Street Journal

Watermelons were piled up on the wagon.

From BBC

She pulled herself up on the wagon so half of her body was out of the molasses.

From Literature