rail
Contents
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.
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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.
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- The metal bar that makes the track for a railroad.
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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.
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- A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.
- We travelled to the seaside by rail.
- a small Scottish village not accessible by rail
- A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
- (surfing) One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
Derived termsEdit
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.
- Rudyard Kipling
- Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert […]
- Rudyard Kipling
- (transitive) To enclose with rails or a railing.
- Ayliffe
- It ought to be fenced in and railed.
- Ayliffe
- (transitive) To range in a line.
- Francis Bacon
- They were brought to London all railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart.
- Francis Bacon
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
Etymology 2Edit
French râle, 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
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).
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2012 June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen's English Society says enuf is enough, innit?”, in the Guardian[2]:
- 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.
- 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.
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TranslationsEdit
Etymology 4Edit
From Middle English rail, reil, from Old English hræġl (“agarment, 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.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Fairholt to this entry?)
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) To gush, flow (of liquid).
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Bk.V, Ch.iv:
- his breste and his brayle was bloodé – and hit rayled all over the see.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.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 […].
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Bk.V, Ch.iv:
AnagramsEdit
DutchEdit
PronunciationEdit
EtymologyEdit
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]
ReferencesEdit
FrenchEdit
PronunciationEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
rail m (plural rails)
AnagramsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “rail” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).