wagon

What it means

1. 1.

   A woman judged to be spiteful or difficult. Aimed at women only, and although it is often said lightly it is an insult about a woman's character with no male equivalent.

In use

• She's an oul' wagon, that one.

  Note: 'Oul' wagon' is the usual form; 'oul'' here means old in tone, not in age.

• Don't be a wagon about it.

  Note: Between close female friends this can be teasing — from a man it very rarely is.

Where it comes from

From the older slang use of 'wagon' for a woman of low repute, recorded in Britain and Ireland from the nineteenth century. Ireland kept it after it faded elsewhere and softened it somewhat, without removing the gendered edge.