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on the wagon

prep_phrase

Etymology

Originally on the water wagon or on the water cart, referring to carts used to hose down dusty roads: see the 1901 quotation below. The suggestion is that a person who is “on the wagon” is drinking water rather than alcoholic beverages. The term may have been used by the early 20th-century temperance movement in the United States; for instance, William Hamilton Anderson (1874 – c. 1959), the superintendent of the New York Anti-Saloon League, is said to have made the following remark about Prohibition: “Be a good sport about it. No more falling off the water wagon. Uncle Sam will help you keep your pledge.”

Definitions

  1. Abstaining from drinking any alcoholic drink, usually in the sense of having given it up…

    Abstaining from drinking any alcoholic drink, usually in the sense of having given it up (as opposed to never having partaken); teetotal.

    • I wanted to git him some whisky, but he shuck his head. 'I'm on the water-cart,' sez he.
    • "Where did you get all that money?" / "Went to hear Bill and climbed on the water wagon."

  2. Maintaining a program of self-improvement or abstinence from some other undesirable habit.

    • He’s been on the smoking cessation wagon for two weeks now.

  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, wagon.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for on the wagon. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA