Word.ws English Dictionary

fall off the wagon

fall off the wagon verb: to cease or fail at a regimen of self-improvement or reform; to lapse back into an old habit or addiction.

fall off the wagon: to cease or fail at a regimen of self-improvement or reform; to lapse back into an old habit or...
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

fall off the wagon (third-person singular simple present falls off the wagon, present participle falling off the wagon, simple past fell off the wagon, past participle fallen off the wagon)

  1. (idiomatic) To cease or fail at a regimen of self-improvement or reform; to lapse back into an old habit or addiction.
    • Though he fell off the wagon several times, he eventually succeeded in quitting.
    • In 2006, he checked himself into the Hazelden center in Springbrook, Ore., to be treated for an addiction to alcohol, having fallen off the wagon after some 20 years of sobriety.2014 August 11, Dave Itzkoff, “Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Comedian, Dies at 63 in Suspected Suicide”, in New York Times
    Synonyms:
    relapse

Synonyms of fall off the wagon

Forms of fall off the wagon

third-person singular presentfalls off the wagon
present participlefalling off the wagon
pastfell off the wagon
past participlefallen off the wagon

Origin of fall off the wagon

Originally fall off the water wagon or fall off 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.”

Questions about fall off the wagon

What does fall off the wagon mean?
Fall off the wagon means to cease or fail at a regimen of self-improvement or reform; to lapse back into an old habit or addiction.
What part of speech is fall off the wagon?
Fall off the wagon is a verb.
What is the past tense of fall off the wagon?
The past tense of fall off the wagon is fell off the wagon.

Words near fall off the wagon in the dictionary

  1. fall off the cliff
  2. fall off the radar
  3. fall off the turnip truck
  4. fall off the twig
  5. fall off the ugly tree
  6. fall off the wagon
  7. fall offs
  8. fall on
  9. fall on a grenade
  10. fall on deaf ears
  11. fall on hard times

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fall off the wagon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-fall off the wagon.ogg.

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