paddy wagon
5
8.2
- noun
- /ˈpædi ˈwæɡən/
- Informal
:
furgón policial
- The police used a paddy wagon to transport the arrested suspects to the station.
- a police paddy wagon
- the back of a paddy wagon
We were marched out, put into Paddy wagons and registered.
- We were marched out, put into Paddy wagons and registered.
Examples
-
The cops are herding the handcuffed "questionees" into the back of a reinforced paddy wagon.
Fiction book (1997) -
Call a paddy wagon because all of these people are wanted for grand theft auto and I'm arresting every one!
-
And you guys put me through a window into a paddy wagon and took me to the hospital.
-
And take him away in the paddy wagon.
Fiction book (1993) -
Where were you when I was being thrown in the back of a paddy wagon?
-
The killer's in that paddy wagon!
-
They cover us, throw us in the paddy wagon.
-
I was put in the paddy wagon, and I was taken down to the tombs.
-
We're transferring him in a blacked-out paddy wagon.
-
Searchlights go back and forth as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons.
Fiction book (2000)
Synonyms
37
5.9
A van used by police to carry prisoners to a station
5
1.6
A van police use to carry people they have arrested
1
3.3
A van police use to carry people they arrest
A van used by police to carry arrested people
A police van used to carry prisoners
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'Paddy' (an ethnic slur for an Irish person) and 'wagon' (a vehicle) does not lead naturally to 'police van used to transport prisoners'; a learner would likely infer 'Irish person's wagon' or be confused. The term is historically and culturally loaded and its police-related meaning is idiomatic rather than compositional, so it is not predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Paddy wagon may come from old slang paddy for an Irish person, because in the 1800s police vans often carried arrested Irish people and the vans became known by that name. That's why paddy wagon means 'a police van used to transport prisoners'.