Phrase guide

fix someone's wagon

verb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To cause injury, distress, or inconvenience to someone, especially as punishment or as a comeuppance.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: give someone what for, take someone down a peg, teach someone a lesson, amerce, castigate, chasten, chastise, come down on, correct, fix someone's wagon, have someone's guts for garters, have someone's head, have someone's hide, give it to someone, give what for, gruel, malavogue, nail someone to the wall, penalize, penance, punish, tan someone's hide, tar out

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From an archaic sense of fix, "to fix in place, render unable to move", which survives in the word affix.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 給...點兒顏色看 /给...点儿颜色看 (gěi...diǎnr yánsè kàn) — punish
  • Finnish: antaa opetus — punish
  • Polish: zadać bobu — punish