station wagon

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station wagon (plural station wagons)

1. (obsolete) A vehicle providing transport to and from a railway station.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.

2. (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, automotive) A body style for cars in which the roof is extended rearward to produce an enclosed area in the position and serving the function of the boot (trunk) of a sedan / saloon.
   • 1952 November, Should You Buy A Station Wagon?, Kiplinger′s Personal Finance, page 45,

     Trade-in values for station wagons have shown a marked improvement since the introduction of the all-steel body. In fact, a station wagon buyer need not worry about his investment′s depreciating any more than he would have to if he bought a four-door sedan.

   • 1983, Willie Morris, The Courting of Marcus Dupree, published 1992, page 164:

     The Negro was lying in a ditch on the left side of the road, face down, headed west, and the body more or less parallel to the road and about a car length behind the station wagon and a car length in front of Price′s car.

   • 2005, Jim Hinckley, The Big Book of Car Culture: The Armchair Guide to Automotive Americana, page 184:

     The prosperity of the postwar years, the baby boom, and the birth of suburbia sent the demand for station wagons soaring. As a result, by 1952 almost every manufacturer offered a station wagon model.

   • 2007, Wendy Lewis, See Australia and Die: Tales of Misadventure Down Under, unnumbered page:

     They rushed him to nearby Coledale Hospital in the back of a station wagon where doctors were standing by.

   • 2011, Balaji Rao, From India to Australia, unnumbered page:

     Two Johns (John Hoban and John Groutsch) came to Essendon airport in their Holden station wagon to take me back to Tocumwal for an interview.

• estate car (UK)
• station sedan (obsolete)
• wagon (US, Australia)

• shooting break
• miniwagon