Word.ws English Dictionary

on the wagon

Syllables: on the wa·gon

on the wagon prepositional phrase: abstaining from drinking any alcoholic drink, usually in the sense of having given it up (as opposed to never having partaken); teetotal.

on the wagon: abstaining from drinking any alcoholic drink, usually in the sense of having given it up (as...
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) 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.[1901, Alice Caldwell Hegan, “How Spring Came to the Cabbage Patch”, in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (Project Gutenberg; EBook #4377), New York, N.Y.: Published by the Century Co., De Vinne Press...
    • "Where did you get all that money?" / "Went to hear Bill and climbed on the water wagon."1915, Billy Sunday, Get on the Water Wagon, Journal Publishing Company
    Synonyms:
    teetotal
    Antonyms:
    off the wagon
  2. (broadly) 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.
    • This book is about harm reduction. It is not about "getting clean." […] It is not about an all-or-nothing attitude: drink or be on the wagon, use or quit. It is about reducing the harm done by alcohol and other drugs in your life. Less harm is the solution.2003, Patt Denning, Jeannie Little, Adina Glickman, “Addiction: Is It All or Nothing?”, in Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide for Managing Drugs and Alcohol, New York, N.Y.: Guilford Press...
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, wagon.

Examples of on the wagon in a sentence

  • Here, have a snifter?" and he pulled a flask from his side pocket, holding it toward The Oskaloosa Kid. / "Thank you, but;—er—I'm on the wagon, you know," declined the youth.1917 (first published 1918 March), Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Oakdale Affair”, in Blue Book Magazine (Project Gutenberg; EBook #363)...
  • [T]hree years later he began formally to go on the wagon: "I quit drinking three months ago, hopefully for life."1995, George E[man] Vaillant, “The Natural History of Alcoholism”, in The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited, Cambridge, Mass....
  • In fact regularly going on the wagon is a sure indication of a serious drink problem.2009, Allen Carr, “Those Lucky Normal Drinkers”, in Easy Way to Control Alcohol, London: Arcturus Publishing, →ISBN, page 200:
  • Simply get back on the wagon and continue on with your nonsmoking goals.2015, Richard Foreman, “Managing Your Cravings”, in How to Quit Smoking in Simple Steps!: The Best Easy Ways to Stop Smoking, [s.l.]...

Synonyms of on the wagon

Antonyms

Origin of on the wagon

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.”

Questions about on the wagon

What does on the wagon mean?
On the wagon means abstaining from drinking any alcoholic drink, usually in the sense of having given it up (as opposed to never having partaken); teetotal.
How do you use on the wagon in a sentence?
Here, have a snifter?" and he pulled a flask from his side pocket, holding it toward The Oskaloosa Kid. / "Thank you, but;—er—I'm on the wagon, you know," declined the youth.
What part of speech is on the wagon?
On the wagon is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the wagon in the dictionary

  1. on the up-and-up
  2. on the uptake
  3. on the verge
  4. on the verge of
  5. on the viretot
  6. on the wagon
  7. on the wallaby
  8. on the wallaby track
  9. on the wane
  10. on the warpath
  11. on the watch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on 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-uk-on the wagon.ogg, en-au-on the wagon.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the wagon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_wagon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.