Plateway

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An early form of railway using L-shaped iron rails.

    "The late Mr. Clement E. Stretton wrote that it was decided in 1785 to lay a plateway "from the dock at Loughborough to Nanpanton, a distance of three miles, but this system of plateway had to be abandoned, as the Road Commissioners would not allow a ledge to project upwards in their road.""

Example

More examples

"The late Mr. Clement E. Stretton wrote that it was decided in 1785 to lay a plateway "from the dock at Loughborough to Nanpanton, a distance of three miles, but this system of plateway had to be abandoned, as the Road Commissioners would not allow a ledge to project upwards in their road.""

Etymology

From plate + way.

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