"hitch one's wagon to a star" meaning in English

See hitch one's wagon to a star in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-hitch one's wagon to a star.ogg [Australia] Forms: hitches one's wagon to a star [present, singular, third-person], hitching one's wagon to a star [participle, present], hitched one's wagon to a star [participle, past], hitched one's wagon to a star [past]
Etymology: Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay "Civilization" (1870). Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} hitch one's wagon to a star (third-person singular simple present hitches one's wagon to a star, present participle hitching one's wagon to a star, simple past and past participle hitched one's wagon to a star)
  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic) To commit to an aspirational goal or course of action that will lead to fulfillment. Wikipedia link: Ralph Waldo Emerson Tags: Canada, US, idiomatic

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for hitch one's wagon to a star meaning in English (3.5kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay \"Civilization\" (1870).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hitches one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hitching one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hitched one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hitched one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "hitch one's wagon to a star (third-person singular simple present hitches one's wagon to a star, present participle hitching one's wagon to a star, simple past and past participle hitched one's wagon to a star)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1891, Henry Augustin Beers, “The Concord Writers 1837-1861”, in Initial Studies in American Letters",
          "text": "[Emerson] was not afraid to be homely and racy in expressing thought of the highest spirituality. \"Hitch your wagon to a star\" is a good instance of his favorite manner.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1909, Jack London, chapter 41, in Martin Eden",
          "text": "Well, he was done, he solaced himself. He had hitched his wagon to a star and been landed in a pestiferous marsh.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Luis S. R. Vas, Business Ideas You Can Turn Into Cash",
          "text": "So if you've had enough of life as an employee and you're planning to set up your own home-based business, do the sensible thing and hitch your wagon to the fastest rising star today — the Internet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Ozana Giusca, More and Better Customers - Blogging Action Plan, page 19",
          "text": "Pick a star, or hero, or whatever product/service/idea you are presenting, and hitch your wagon to it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To commit to an aspirational goal or course of action that will lead to fulfillment."
      ],
      "id": "en-hitch_one's_wagon_to_a_star-en-verb-c0fhFKTo",
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "commit",
          "commit"
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        [
          "aspiration",
          "aspiration"
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        [
          "course of action",
          "course of action"
        ],
        [
          "fulfillment",
          "fulfillment"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, idiomatic) To commit to an aspirational goal or course of action that will lead to fulfillment."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
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      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
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  "word": "hitch one's wagon to a star"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay \"Civilization\" (1870).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hitches one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hitching one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hitched one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hitched one's wagon to a star",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "hitch one's wagon to a star (third-person singular simple present hitches one's wagon to a star, present participle hitching one's wagon to a star, simple past and past participle hitched one's wagon to a star)",
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    }
  ],
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        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1891, Henry Augustin Beers, “The Concord Writers 1837-1861”, in Initial Studies in American Letters",
          "text": "[Emerson] was not afraid to be homely and racy in expressing thought of the highest spirituality. \"Hitch your wagon to a star\" is a good instance of his favorite manner.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1909, Jack London, chapter 41, in Martin Eden",
          "text": "Well, he was done, he solaced himself. He had hitched his wagon to a star and been landed in a pestiferous marsh.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Luis S. R. Vas, Business Ideas You Can Turn Into Cash",
          "text": "So if you've had enough of life as an employee and you're planning to set up your own home-based business, do the sensible thing and hitch your wagon to the fastest rising star today — the Internet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Ozana Giusca, More and Better Customers - Blogging Action Plan, page 19",
          "text": "Pick a star, or hero, or whatever product/service/idea you are presenting, and hitch your wagon to it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To commit to an aspirational goal or course of action that will lead to fulfillment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "commit",
          "commit"
        ],
        [
          "aspiration",
          "aspiration"
        ],
        [
          "course of action",
          "course of action"
        ],
        [
          "fulfillment",
          "fulfillment"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, idiomatic) To commit to an aspirational goal or course of action that will lead to fulfillment."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Ralph Waldo Emerson"
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      "audio": "en-au-hitch one's wagon to a star.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-hitch_one%27s_wagon_to_a_star.ogg/En-au-hitch_one%27s_wagon_to_a_star.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-hitch_one%27s_wagon_to_a_star.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hitch one's wagon to a star"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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