rail
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English rail, rayl, *reȝel, *reȝol (found in reȝolsticke (“a ruler”)), partly from Old English regol (“a ruler, straight bar”) and partly from Old French reille; both from Latin regula (“rule, bar”), from regere (“to rule, to guide, to govern”); see regular.
NounEdit
rail (plural rails)
- A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.
- The metal bar that makes the track for a railroad.
- 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
- A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
- A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.
- We travelled to the seaside by rail.
- a small Scottish village not accessible by rail
- rail transport
- A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
- (surfing) One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
- (Internet) A vertical section on one side of a web page.
- We're experimenting with ads in the right-hand rail.
- (drugs) A large line (portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug).
- 2013, Jason Isbell, "Super 8":
- Do a couple rails and chase your own tail
- 2013, Jason Isbell, "Super 8":
- (surfing) The edge of a surfboard.
Derived termsEdit
- anti-rail, antirail
- bullhead rail
- by rail
- cantrail
- check rail
- cograil
- conductor rail
- fourth rail
- grab rail, grabrail
- guardrail
- handrail
- headrail
- heavy rail
- hitching rail
- light rail
- live rail
- monorail
- Network Rail
- non-rail, nonrail
- on the rail
- on the rails
- pro-rail
- railborne
- railbound
- rail brake
- railbuff
- railbus
- railcar
- railcard
- rail drink
- railfan
- railfanning
- rail fare, railfare
- rail freight
- rail grab
- railgun
- rail head
- railhead
- rail joint, railjoint
- rail liquor
- railmotor, rail-motor
- rail replacement service
- railroad
- rail saver
- rail-served
- railtour, rail tour
- rail turn
- rail wagon
- railway
- ride the rails
- road-rail
- running rail
- split rail
- third rail
- towel rail
- tramrail, tram rail
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
VerbEdit
rail (third-person singular simple present rails, present participle railing, simple past and past participle railed)
- (intransitive) To travel by railway.
- 1890, Rudyard Kipling, At the End of the Passage
- Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert […]
- 1890, Rudyard Kipling, At the End of the Passage
- (transitive) To enclose with rails or a railing.
- 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon juris canonici Anglicani
- It ought to be fenced in and railed.
- 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon juris canonici Anglicani
- (transitive) To range in a line.
- 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, OCLC 1086746628:
- They were brought to London all railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart.
- (transitive, vulgar, slang) To sexually penetrate in rough manner.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From French râle, rale, from Middle French raalle, from Old French rasle. Compare Medieval Latin rallus. Named from its harsh cry, Vulgar Latin *rasculum, from Latin rādere (“to scrape”).
NounEdit
rail (plural rails)
Usage notesEdit
- Not all birds in the family Rallidae are rails by their common name. The family also includes coots, moorhens, crakes, flufftails, waterhens and others.
Derived termsEdit
- Aztec rail (Rallus tenuirostris)
- banded rail
- barred rail (Hypotaenidia okinawae)
- buff-banded rail (Hypotaenidia philippensis)
- Calayan rail (Gallirallus calayanensis)
- chestnut rail (Eulabeornis castaneoventris)
- clapper rail (Rallus crepitans)
- forest rail (Rallicula spp.)
- grey-throated rail (Canirallus oculeus)
- Guam rail (Hypotaenidia owstoni)
- king rail (Rallus elegans)
- mangrove rail (Rallus longirostris)
- Mexican rail
- Okinawa rail (Hypotaenidia okinawae)
- pink-legged rail (Hypotaenidia insignis)
- Ridgway's rail (Rallus obsoletus)
- Roviana rail (Hypotaeinidia rovianae)
- snoring rail (Aramidopsis plateri)
- water rail (Rallus aquaticus)
- Woodford's rail (Hypotaenidia woodfordi)
- wood rail (Aramides spp.)
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
See alsoEdit
Etymology 3Edit
From Middle French railler.
VerbEdit
rail (third-person singular simple present rails, present participle railing, simple past and past participle railed)
- To complain violently (against, about).
- c. 1596–1598, W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, OCLC 24594216, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- Till thou canst raile the seale from off my bond
Thou but offend'st thy Lungs to speake so loud:
Repaire thy wit good youth, or it will fall
To endlesse ruine. I stand heere for Law.
- 1882, Mark Twain, The Stolen White Elephant, [2]
- Now that the detectives were in adversity, the newspapers turned upon them, and began to fling the most stinging sarcasms at them. This gave the minstrels an idea, and they dressed themselves as detectives and hunted the elephant on the stage in the most extravagant way. The caricaturists made pictures of detectives scanning the country with spy-glasses, while the elephant, at their backs, stole apples out of their pockets. And they made all sorts of ridiculous pictures of the detective badge—you have seen that badge printed in gold on the back of detective novels no doubt, it is a wide-staring eye, with the legend, “WE NEVER SLEEP.” When detectives called for a drink, the would-be facetious barkeeper resurrected an obsolete form of expression and said, “Will you have an eye-opener?” All the air was thick with sarcasms. But there was one man who moved calm, untouched, unaffected, through it all. It was that heart of oak, the chief inspector. His brave eye never drooped, his serene confidence never wavered. He always said: “Let them rail on; he laughs best who laughs last.”
- 1910, "Saki", H. H. Munro, The Bag,[3]
- The Major’s fury clothed and reclothed itself in words as frantically as a woman up in town for one day’s shopping tries on a succession of garments. He reviled and railed at fate and the general scheme of things, he pitied himself with a strong, deep pity too poignant for tears, he condemned every one with whom he had ever come in contact to endless and abnormal punishments.
- 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 27:
- Chief Joyi railed against the white man, whom he believed had deliberately sundered the Xhosa tribe, dividing brother from brother.
- 2012 June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”, in The Guardian[4], London, archived from the original on 10 March 2016:
- The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.
TranslationsEdit
Etymology 4Edit
From Middle English rail, reil, from Old English hræġl (“garment, dress, robe”). Cognate with Old Frisian hreil, reil, Old Saxon hregil, Old High German hregil (“clothing, garment, dress”).
Alternative formsEdit
NounEdit
rail (plural rails)
- (obsolete) An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
- (obsolete) Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.
- 1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless:
- A course hempen raile about her shoulders.
Derived termsEdit
Etymology 5Edit
Probably from Anglo-Norman raier, Middle French raier.
VerbEdit
rail (third-person singular simple present rails, present participle railing, simple past and past participle railed)
- (obsolete, of a liquid) To gush, flow.
- 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum iv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:
- his breste and his brayle was bloodé – and hit rayled all over the see.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book 4, canto 2:
- So furiously each other did assayle, / As if their soules they would attonce haue rent / Out of their brests, that streames of bloud did rayle / Adowne, as if their springes of life were spent […].
See alsoEdit
AnagramsEdit
CatalanEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- raïl (superseded)
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
rail m (plural rails)
Further readingEdit
- “rail” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
DutchEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
rail f (plural rails, diminutive railsje n or railtje n)
Usage notesEdit
The diminutive railsjes is only used if used for railway tracks.[1]
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
rail m (plural rails)
Further readingEdit
- “rail”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
AnagramsEdit
SpanishEdit
NounEdit
rail m (plural railes)
Further readingEdit
- “rail”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014