covered wagon
5
5.6
- noun
- /ˈkʌvərd ˈwæɡən/
- US
:
carreta cubierta
- They were a party of settlers in covered wagon times.
Like literal covered wagons and yeah.
- Like literal covered wagons and yeah.
Examples
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Heirloom furniture that had been brought by covered wagon into the Midwest was destroyed.
Blog text (11) -
We were traveling west in a covered wagon across the country.
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They came by boat, by covered wagon, or on foot.
Fiction book (1998) -
Covered wagons are the preferred way, but some are better constructed than others.
Blog text (11) -
We will have to be like pioneers, I thought, casting the heavy load from our covered wagon so we can ford the rising river.
Fiction book (1991) -
Why in 1870, my forebears crossed the Adirondacks in a covered wagon.
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Before the 1930s, most peddlers delivered in horse-drawn covered wagons, and thereafter they used automobiles and trucks.
Academic text (1990) -
Already the homesteaders were descending on South Florida, creaking through the woods in covered wagons hauled through the hot sand by two or three yokes of mules or oxen.
Fiction book (1990) -
In the 1800s, pioneers traveled west in a covered wagon to seek new opportunities.
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During our history tour, we rode in a replica of a covered wagon like the ones used by early settlers.
Synonyms
88
1.0
A four-wheeled vehicle pulled by animals or a tractor to carry goods
1
9.9
A large covered wagon with broad wheels used by 1800s American pioneers to carry goods
A large covered wagon with wide wheels used by settlers to travel across the plains
A large covered wagon used by early settlers to travel across the prairies
A large covered wagon with wide wheels that early American pioneers used to cross the plains
How Covered
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a wagon with an arched canvas top' is directly and literally formed from 'covered' (having a cover) + 'wagon' (a large cart). This is a productive adjective + noun composition found across languages and contexts, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Covered wagon comes from the real wagons pioneers used to travel west in the 1800s. These were wooden wagons with a cloth cover stretched over a curved frame to keep people and goods dry and safe, so the name simply describes what the vehicle looked like and did. That's why today covered wagon means that old frontier vehicle and brings to mind long pioneer journeys.