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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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
As conspicuously ill as many horses were, streetcar companies and wagon drivers had financial incentives to keep them working.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 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
Who knew all day, every day sitting on a bumpy, shaking wagon could hurt so much?
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
Between 1953 and 1968, Band Wagon helped build a thriving live music circuit, producing homegrown artistes such as Marie Sampson and Shirley Churcher, who would later find success in the West.
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
My big event for Wednesday is when Mrs. Trent comes to the front door about two o'clock—just as the Duke is revving up his War Wagon.
From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements
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 1916, when the 36-inch pipeline was dropped into the ground along Sunset Boulevard, cars were just beginning to compete with trolleys and horse-drawn wagons in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 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
Uncle Al is gone, swallowed whole by people, horses, and wagons.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
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