Idiom
paint the wagon
Meaning
To get things done.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“We need to paint the wagon and finish this project today.”
“The deadline is tomorrow, so we really need to paint the wagon if we want to succeed.”
“Despite the mounting pressure from the board of directors, the team managed to paint the wagon and deliver the final report well ahead of schedule.”
Examples
simple
“We need to paint the wagon and finish this project today.”
contextual
“The deadline is tomorrow, so we really need to paint the wagon if we want to succeed.”
complex
“Despite the mounting pressure from the board of directors, the team managed to paint the wagon and deliver the final report well ahead of schedule.”
Origin
Modern business jargon derived from the title song of the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon. The lyrics, including the lines "Gotta dream boy / Gotta song / Paint your wagon / And come along," provided the source for the expression.
Key words
Related idioms
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