to stay on the wagon
1
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
mantenerse sobrio
- After struggling with alcohol for years, he finally decided to stay on the wagon and focus on his health.
Examples
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A recent blog post by one of my closest friends (and a talented blogger if he would only stay on the wagon).
Blog text (11) -
She found it challenging to stay on the wagon during social events where everyone else was drinking.
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You promised to stay on the wagon.
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These guys don't stay on the wagon for long.
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I haven't had a drink in a month, by the way, and I want to try to stay on the wagon.
Fiction book (1995) -
One of the movies I'm really looking forward to this year is Smashed, the tale of a semi-functioning alcoholic who struggles to stay on the wagon while his spouse continues to party and be entirely unsupportive.
Blog text (14) -
To improve his life, Mark made a commitment to stay on the wagon and avoid alcohol completely.
Synonyms
8
8.2
Not drinking alcohol after a period of heavy drinking
1
7.7
Not drinking alcohol at all
Someone who does not drink alcohol
Antonyms
How Sober
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'abstain from drinking' is an idiomatic sense of 'on the wagon' that cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'stay' (remain), 'on' (location), 'the', and 'wagon' (a vehicle). A B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would read it literally as remaining on a vehicle; the alcoholic-abstinence meaning requires cultural/lexicalized knowledge. Therefore the expression is unpredictable from its parts and is opaque to learners.
Etymology
Stay on the wagon comes from a popular story about old water wagons: towns used a wagon to carry water, and people who chose water instead of alcohol were said to be on the wagon. So stay on the wagon means 'to avoid drinking alcohol'.