on the wagon phr.
1. voluntarily refraining from alcohol.
![]() | United Service I 155: ‘No, thanks,’ was the reply ; ‘I’m on the water-wagon.’ ‘Oh, I know that; but I mean as medicine’. | |
![]() | Checkers 167: Arthur took early occasion to state that he was ‘on the water-wagon.’. | |
![]() | Mrs. Wiggs 123: I wanted to git him some whisky, but he shuck his head. ‘I’m on the water-cart,’ sez he [DA]. | |
![]() | Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 21 Dec. 7–8: If a student has ‘hit the benzine can’ too hard on the night before he is apt to be anxious to get ‘on to the water wagon’. | |
![]() | Gentleman of Leisure Ch. v: ‘Talking, however,’ said Jimmy, ‘is dry work. Are you by any chance on the wagon?’. | |
![]() | Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 59: We’ve reformed [...] It’ll be five weeks to-morrow since we got on the cart. | ‘Sweeney to Sanguinetti to Schultz’ in|
![]() | Indoor Sports 22 Jan. [synd. cartoon] ’Member the time Mansfield was on the cart and we caught him dipping his bread in the brew. | |
![]() | Humoresque 105: I’m on the water-wagon. | ‘A Petal on the Current’ in|
![]() | Hand-made Fables 12: They had been on the Cart for two full days. | |
![]() | Adventures of a Boomer Op. 52: As Mr. Phillips says, I am O.W.W. (On The Water Wagon). | |
![]() | Plastic Age 273: He did his drinking elsewhere, confiding to his cronies that Carver was on the wagon. | |
![]() | (con. WWI) Soldier and Sailor Words 301: Water Cart (or Wagon), On The: A Teetotaller. | |
![]() | Tramp and Other Stories 49: Bloody poor way of spendin’ the afternoon . . . keepin’ on the water-waggon . . . she’ll have to make up for mucking my afternoon. | |
![]() | Send for Paul Temple (1992) 223: What the devil’s the matter with you, Horace? Are you on the wagon? | |
![]() | Pigeon Pie 243: He was now on the water-waggon. | |
![]() | Courtship of Uncle Henry 168: Metho Bill, the town’s fulltime drunk, swore off the drink and went on the waggon to make sure he would be sober for the match. | |
![]() | Come in Spinner (1960) 310: Tea it had to be since he had decided to go on the water-wagon. | |
![]() | Alcoholics (1993) 67: I’ll be about ready to go on the wagon. | |
![]() | He who Shoots Last 93: You should go on the wagon yourself. | |
![]() | Much Obliged, Jeeves 27: Ginger’s practically on the waggon, so there were no cocktails before lunch. | |
![]() | S.R.O. (1998) 122: ‘You can’t even remember I’ve been on the wagon for five months’. | |
![]() | New Girls (1982) 9: He [...] announced he was on the water wagon. | |
![]() | Brown’s Requiem 43: You got that look, nervous like, of a juicehead on the wagon. | |
![]() | My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 286: He was technically on the wagon but [...] a drink or two on a special occasion wouldn’t really hurt. | |
![]() | Between the Devlin 21: ‘What I should do is go on the wagon for a month’. | |
![]() | Black Swan Green 314: So how long [...] we staying on the wagon this time, then, Frank Moran? | |
![]() | Thrill City [ebook] I guess if you’re going to fall off the wagon then the conclusion of a police pursuit was the time to do it. | |
![]() | Sun. Times 6 Feb. 23/3: In 2000 she went on the wagon. | |
![]() | Dirty Words [ebook] ‘I thought you were gonna say you were on the wagon’. | ‘So Long, Johnnie Scumbag’ in|
![]() | Glorious Heresies 201: Tony had taken care with his disguise since his tumble from the wagon; today he was clean-shaven, fragrant and ironed. |
2. in ext. use of sense 1, adopting any form of self-denial, e.g. celibate, abandoning one’s use of drugs.
![]() | Goodbye Columbus 65: [in context of excessive consumption of fruit] [I] would have to spend the following night, sadly, on the wagon. | |
![]() | Demon (1979) 19: His love life [...] was extremely active. When he first started working [...] he went on the wagon, so to speak. | |
![]() | Curvy Lovebox 33: You want some fuckin’ gear or you wanna go on the fuckin’ wagon the rest of your days. |
In phrases
to abstain from alcohol.
![]() | You Can Search Me 19: He pulled a few snake tricks down there and in five minutes he had all the members of the Highball Association climbing the water wagon. | |
![]() | New Mencken Letters (1977) 52: I rode the water-wagon for 4 weeks. | letter 8 Apr. in Bode|
![]() | Old-Time Saloon 19: A large slice of the population, even during the high tide of the wet era, shunned the booze joints and rode on the wagon. |