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Rail
Definitions
- 1 A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
"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."
- 2 Any of several birds in the family Rallidae.
- 3 An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress. obsolete
- 4 any of numerous widely distributed small wading birds of the family Rallidae having short wings and very long toes for running on soft mud wordnet
- 5 The metal bar forming part of the track for a railroad.
"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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- 6 Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief. obsolete
"A course hempen raile about her shoulders."
- 7 a horizontal bar (usually of wood or metal) wordnet
- 8 A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.
"We travelled to the seaside by rail."
- 9 short for railway wordnet
- 10 A conductor maintained at a fixed electrical potential relative to ground, to which other circuit components are connected.
"ISA devices draw power from the +5 V, −5 V, +12 V, and −12 V rails of the power supply unit."
- 11 a barrier consisting of a horizontal bar and supports wordnet
- 12 A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
- 13 a bar or pair of parallel bars of rolled steel making the railway along which railroad cars or other vehicles can roll wordnet
- 14 One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
"Rails alone can only ever have a marginal effect on a board's general turning ability."
- 15 A vertical section on one side of a web page. Internet
"We're experimenting with ads in the right-hand rail."
- 16 A large line (portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug).
"Do a couple rails and chase your own tail"
- 17 Each of two vertical side bars supporting the rungs of a ladder.
- 18 The raised edge of the game board.
- 1 To travel by railway. intransitive
"Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert […]"
- 2 To complain violently (against, about).
"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."
- 3 To gush; to flow. obsolete
"his breste and his brayle was bloodé – and hit rayled all over the see."
- 4 criticize severely wordnet
- 5 To place on a track. transitive
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- 6 To blow. obsolete
- 7 spread negative information about wordnet
- 8 To enclose with rails or a railing. transitive
"It ought to be fenced in and railed."
- 9 complain bitterly wordnet
- 10 To range in a line. transitive
"They were brought to London all railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart."
- 11 fish with a handline over the rails of a boat wordnet
- 12 To sexually penetrate in a rough manner. slang, transitive, vulgar
- 13 lay with rails wordnet
- 14 To snort a line of powdered drugs. slang, transitive
"All I can think about is being seventeen days sober and desperate to rail a line of blow after last night's group outing to see Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring (at my request), which, in hindsight, was a fucking dumb thing for a rehab to approve of."
- 15 travel by rail or train wordnet
- 16 convey (goods etc.) by rails wordnet
- 17 separate with a railing wordnet
- 18 provide with rails wordnet
- 19 enclose with rails wordnet
Etymology
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 regō (“to rule, to guide, to govern”); see regular. Doublet of regal, regula, rigol, and rule.
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 regō (“to rule, to guide, to govern”); see regular. Doublet of regal, regula, rigol, and rule.
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”).
From Middle French railler.
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”).
Probably from Anglo-Norman raier, Middle French raier.
See also for "rail"
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