Conestoga wagon

A heavy covered wagon with large rear wheels, used especially by American pioneers as they traveled west.

[After Conestoga, a village of southeast Pennsylvania.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Conestoga wagon

(ˌkɒnɪˈstəʊɡə)

(Historical Terms) US and Canadian a large heavy horse-drawn covered wagon used in the 19th century

[C19: after Conestoga, Pennsylvania, where it was first made]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Con′es•to′ga wag′on

(ˈkɒn əˈstoʊ gə, ˌkɒn-)
n.

a large, heavy, broad-wheeled covered wagon, used to transport freight across North America during the early westward migration. Also called Con`es•to′ga.

[1715–20; after Conestoga, Pa., where it was first made]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Conestoga wagon - a large wagon with broad wheels and an arched canvas top; used by the United States pioneers to cross the prairies in the 19th century

Conestoga, covered wagon, prairie schooner, prairie wagon

waggon, wagon - any of various kinds of wheeled vehicles drawn by an animal or a tractor

caravan, wagon train, train - a procession (of wagons or mules or camels) traveling together in single file; "we were part of a caravan of almost a thousand camels"; "they joined the wagon train for safety"

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References in periodicals archive

Buckboard seats were added to the bed and a canvas top was fitted to it, much like a Conestoga wagon. With Edward at the wheel, the threshing crew rode in the back with their personal gear, all at a blistering pace of about 20mph.

PRESERVING A Legacy: MISSOURI BROTHERS CONTINUE FOREBEARS' PASSION FOR TRACTION STEAM ENGINES

We recently took them to our local museum's pioneer heritage event, where they pulled a historic Conestoga wagon. They can be driven by using voice and hand gestures.

Livestock Holiday Flair

Ever since long-distance transportation evolved beyond the Conestoga wagon, commercial carriers (which, in the 20th century, meant trains and planes) have dealt with an obscure but serious problem.

Meet me in the bar: be it train or plane, when it came to conveying leisure and sophistication, marketers headed straight for the cocktail lounge

While these past artists traveled with pack mule and Conestoga wagon, today's explorers are outfitted with circuit boards and solar panels.

Imagining other worlds: space artists help us visualize planets and moons that humans have only glimpsed

However, if we share AASL's vision, subscribe to the common belief statements, and know that our students need us to speak for them, then we can put our shoulders to the wheel to get the Conestoga wagon out of the rut and convert it to a futuristic transporter in order to beam our kids up to 21st century learning.

Implementation or bust!: join the AASL standards wagon train

The Colt revolver and Conestoga wagon were key to white settlement of that vast land, but it took a lot more than those two devices to make life on the plains livable.

Harvest the breezes: windmill legacy continues

Surrounded by quasihistorical artifacts such as a polar-bear-drawn Conestoga wagon, an illustration for a "Symzonia" stamp and handdrawn maps and sketches that depict this newly colonized land, Pinder's installation doubles as a real estate office.

Global Warming

Such texts intriguingly move east into the Atlantic to explore the West in imaginative fashion, substituting the open sea for the prairie and the ship for the Conestoga wagon.

Women & Children First: Nineteenth-Century Sea Narratives & American Identity

If I'd been born in the 1850s or thereabouts, you would not have found me on a Conestoga wagon to Nebraska or the Dakotas.

Not a trace of doubt: women called to be priests are the real deal

The Spread Eagle Tavern, shown in the painting, 14 miles (23 kilometers) from Philadelphia provided food and lodging for the those traveling by stagecoach or Conestoga wagon.

A legacy in art in a new exhibition

If Kay El Bar is the Conestoga wagon of guest ranches--an authentic classic--Rancho de los Caballeros is a cowboy's Cadillac: the Old West gussied up with considerable glamour.

Where the dude is king

A rectangular table, chairs, toy box (shaped like a conestoga wagon), coat rack (with the silhouette of a saguaro cactus) and mirror drew lots of traffic.

JUVENILE PRODUCTS: THIS LITTLE INDUSTRY GOES TO MARKET