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.
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sorry, Audi-philes: There will be no replacement for the old A4 sedan, no convertible model and no wagon variant, what the company calls the Avant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 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
Network Rail, which owns, operates, maintains and develops Britain's railways, claimed that the derailment occurred because the wagon had "not been maintained with reasonable care" by Touax.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
It only survived after a computer with the last known copy of the movie was strapped into the back seat of a Volvo station wagon and chauffeured to Pixar Animation Studios.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
“Each day the wagon will grow lighter,” I promise.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The bottles sit inside a handcrafted miniature Woody Wagon, which doubles as an art object.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
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
Veteran guitarist Cyrus Tata remembered being put on stage at just 12, at one of the Sunday Band Wagon shows.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
The Welcome Wagon rolled on to goaltender Joey Daccord, but he’d already hit the ice for practice.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 7, 2023
At the station M. Bouc was greeted with respectful empressement by the brown-uniformed Wagon Lit conductor.
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
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
Lastly, a growing crowd of car enthusiasts is collecting vehicles that are remarkably normal—think Ford Tauruses, Honda Civics and Buick station wagons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
On the worst grades, wagons were lifted and lowered by pulley and rope.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
AFP journalists saw long lines of police wagons, horse patrols, barbed wire around government buildings, and large numbers of plainclothes officers.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
Mr. Spicer and Lil were standing by two wagons, and one was already packed with filled brown bags.
From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
