waggon

Etymology

noun

  1. (Britain) Dated spelling of wagon.
    We go on like one of those country waggons, creaking along in the old ruts […] 1880s, A. L. O. E., The Wondrous Sickle, and Other Stories, London: Gall & Inglis, →OCLC
    The first waggon was loaded, and moved a few yards along the quay, and the second took its place. There was an order and swiftness over the work that told of a careful preparation. The third waggon took the place of the second and the work of loading it went even faster. Then, at a shout from the Grocer, the loaders threw off their slings, took every man of them a cudgel from beneath his smock, and formed themselves as a guard about the waggons that went away quickly along the quay on their way inland. 1922 February, H. Harrison, “Plot and Counterplot: A Tale of the Smuggling Canker in the Days Following the Battle of Waterloo”, in The Boy’s Own Paper, volume XLV, part 4, London: “Boy’s Own Paper” Office,[…], →OCLC, chapter II, page 262, column 1
    The waggons are deep and square; wider at the top than at the bottom, and are fast at all sides. The bottom has hinges, and can be let down to discharge the coals, of which these waggons contain about three bolls each. 1944 September and October, Charles E. Lee, “An Ancient Underground Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 274, text from early 19th century
    It was five miles or more from Maggot's lane to the Ferry. The hobbits wrapped themselves up, but their ears were strained for any sound above the creak of the wheels and the slow clop of the ponies' hoofs. The waggon seemed slower than a snail to Frodo. 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, “A Short Cut to Mushrooms”, in The Fellowship of the Ring, London: George Allen & Unwin, →OCLC, page 105; republished Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012
    On the sixteenth-century farm all the heavy hauling of lime or marl for the fields, gravel for the lanes, timber for the fences and 'coals or other necessary fuel fetched far off' had to be done as far as possible in the summer while the roads were still dry and firm. […] About the end of October the prudent farmer, like Best of Elmswell near Driffield, laid up his waggon, and sent his corn to market during the winter months on a string of eight pack-horses, tied head to tail, with a couple of men to 'guide the pokes'. 1967, J. Crofts, “The Weather”, in Packhorse, Waggon and Post: Land Carriage and Communications under the Tudors and Stuarts (Studies in Social History), London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; reprinted as Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2007, page 9

verb

  1. (UK) Dated spelling of wagon.
    The ore is firſt waggoned to the river, a quarter of a mile, then laden on board of canoes, and carried acroſs the river, which is there about 200 yards wide, and then again taken into waggons and carried to he furnace. 1781–1782, Thomas Jefferson, “Query VI. A Notice of the Mines and Other Subterraneous Riches; Its Trees, Plants, Fruits, &c.”, in Notes on the State of Virginia.[…], London: Printed for John Stockdale,[…], published 1787, →OCLC, page 39

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