meat wagon

plural meat wagons · alternative meatwagon · alternative meat-wagon

1. historicalA vehicle used for the transportation of meat, usually refrigerated and traditionally of a non-motorized type pulled by horses.

   She tried not to be flattered, knowing this rake could talk a dog off a meat wagon.

   2008, Georgina Gentry, To Wed A Texan, →ISBN

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   The firing of a truck load of meat and two cases of assault enlived the strike of the meat wagon drivers yesterday.

   1907 August 30, “Non-Union Meat Drivers Attacked—Meat Wagon Burned”, in New York Times, page 2

   He began his career as an itinerant meat wagon driver who sold cut beef to farmers and working-class families along a regular route.

   2003, Adams Media, Erik Herman, San Francisco Job Bank, →ISBN

2. slangAn ambulance.

   So they had to take me from there in an ambulance. . . . I remember my dad and uncle used to call them meat wagons.

   2003, Ed Masley,"Cynics' Spain tour ends with injury to lead singer," post-gazette.com (Pittsburgh, US), 27 Jan. (retrieved 25 July 2008)

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   It was a little past ten that night when his nurse, Sylvia of the Bedpans, came tiptoeing in with sleeping pills on a little tray and told him that his friend, Detective Leary, had just been delivered to the emergency room in a meat wagon.

   2012, Thomas Gifford, Kiss Me Once, →ISBN

   Most of the time this proved but a temporary respite, and when he was too far gone he went into the meat wagon, at which time he dispossessed the most robust looking of the riders.

   2015, Jack Dower, Deliverance at Diepholz: A POW's Story, →ISBN

   Synonyms: band-aid buggy, blood box, body box, bone box

3. slangA police van for transporting prisoners; a paddy wagon.

   He spent the next four hours in the back of the sweltering NYPD meat wagon as police rounded up other young men.

   2007 October 30, M. Chris Fabricant, “Runnin' Scared Rousting the Cops”, in Village Voice, retrieved 25 Jul 2008

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   In the middle of each night the gendarmerie's meat wagon made its rounds slowly, its crew stopping by the hunched clochard figures who sprawled in rags on the streets and gutters and doorways of Paris.

   2015, Brian Garfield, Hopscotch, →ISBN

   I looked over at the man driving the meat wagon in which I was currently a court-required passenger and said, ever the fellow armed with a witty retort: "Huh?"

   2017, Raymond Benson, Paul Dale Anderson, Brian Hodge, Corruption at the Crossroad

4. slangA vehicle for transporting dead bodies; a hearse.

   She had even gone out and seen the body being loaded into the meat wagon.

   2014, Benjamin Black, The Black Eyed Blonde: A Philip Marlowe Novel, →ISBN

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   The old man wandered away from his retirement home, dropped dead on the beach and was picked up by the meat wagon and sent to the morgue.

   2000, Stephen Hunter, "Varicose Vain" (film review of The Crew), Washington Post, 25 Aug., p. C01

   “That's my lieutenant,” said Agent Riley runnin' over to the meat wagon to see the body. When Agent Riley made it over to the meat wagon, he popped open the backdoor of the meat wagon to look at the body.

   2010, Steve E. Wright, Bloodline of a Mafia, →ISBN