wagon greasing n Also wagon grease, wagon greasing distance chiefly Sth, S Midl
The distance travelled between two greasings of a wagon’s wheels—used as an indefinite measure of distance.
1944 Buckmaster Deep River 32 neGA (as of 1859), “Don’t get a wagon-greasin’ away from the house very often,” he said. 1953 Randolph–Wilson Down in Holler213 Ozarks, Speaking of a journey undertaken in his youth, an aged hillman said: “I don’t know how many miles it was. . . But we . . greased the wagon four times. That’s how we measured distance in them days, by the wagon-greasin’s.” 1953 Time 7 Dec 100 CA, When I started broadcasting seven years ago, there wasn’t a hillbilly disk jockey within wagon-greasing distance. 1968 Grant Co. Herald (Elbow Lake MN) 20 June 2/4, Lars, that was a long wagon-greasing past 65 was agreed with Joe. 1969 DARE (Qu. MM25, . . A long distance: “Texas is a _____ [from here].”) Inf TX70, Several wagon greasings. c1975 in 2006 DARE File—Internet swKY, So on a beautiful Thanksgiving morning after a nine months stay, a covered wagon was greased and ready to roll . . with a four wagon greasings, or two hundred mi trip. . . He boarded the train at Mexico Ky for “White Sulphor [sic] Crossing” flagstation. A distance of about 12 or 15 mile, or about a wagon greasing that day from home. 1978 New Yorker 6 Feb 64 GA, Americus is only ten miles from Plains—“a wagon grease” away, in Georgia lingo. 1986 Pederson LAGS Concordance, 1 inf, cwAR, Three wagon greasings from town. 2000 Baylor Univ. Med. Center Proc. 13.52 (Internet) MO, Picture in your mind a good ole boy from my old hometown of Hardin, Missouri. . . Hardin is a suburb of Henrietta, out from Norborne, down the road from Carrollton, across the river from Lexington, one wagon greasing from Richmond—you get the picture.