Entrain

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Spirit, liveliness, vivacity, drive. archaic, countable, transitive, uncountable

    "[T]he greater number of reasonable people attributed the want of entrain and dullness of the whole thing to the presence of Monsignore ——."

Verb
  1. 1
    To draw (something) along as a current does. transitive

    "water entrained by steam"

  2. 2
    To get into or board a railway train. intransitive, poetic, transitive

    "There were two further unscheduled stops, one at a small station, Skalice, where a small party of tourists entrained, and at Břeclav, a junction and customs post on the Austrian frontier."

  3. 3
    board a train wordnet
  4. 4
    To suspend (small particles) in the current of a fluid. transitive

    "In certain cases, it is possible to entrain enough of the solids continually in the effluent gas stream and then to disentrain them again away from the bed."

  5. 5
    To put aboard a railway train. transitive

    "to entrain a regiment"

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    To set up or propagate (a signal), such as an oscillation. transitive
  2. 7
    To conjoin, to link; as in a series of entities, elements, objects or processes. figuratively, transitive
  3. 8
    To become trained or conditioned in (a pattern of brain behavior). transitive

    "There are several neurofeedback-related approaches that make use of auditory and/or visual stimulation (AVS) to entrain or disentrain brain electrical activity."

  4. 9
    To draw, induce, or bring about. literary, rare, transitive

    "Thou muſt doe well, / Faith true obtaine: / Wit none repell, / Friend déere entraine."

Synonyms

All synonyms
bicyclebikeboardbuscatch a trainchauffeur

Example

More examples

"In certain cases, it is possible to entrain enough of the solids continually in the effluent gas stream and then to disentrain them again away from the bed."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle French entrainer (modern French entraîner /entrainer), from en- + trainer (“to pull, drag”).

Etymology 2

From en- + train.

Etymology 3

From French entrain, a deverbal from entraîner (“to charm, enthuse”) or a derivation from être en train (“to be in a good mood”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.