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rail1

Pronunciation: /reɪl/
Translate rail | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of rail

noun

  • 1a bar or series of bars fixed on upright supports or attached to a wall or ceiling, serving as part of a barrier or used to hang things on:a curtain rail
  • (the rails) the inside boundary fence of a racecourse.
  • 2a steel bar or continuous line of bars laid on the ground as one of a pair forming a railway track:the goods train left the rails
  • [mass noun, often as modifier] railways as a means of transport:rail fares travelling by rail
  • 3a horizontal piece in the frame of a panelled door or sash window. Compare with stile2.
  • 4the edge of a surfboard or sailboard.
  • 5 Electronics a conductor which is maintained at a fixed potential and to which other parts of a circuit are connected: the anode must be connected to the positive supply rail

verb

  • 1 [with object] provide or enclose (a space or place) with a rail or rails:the altar is railed off from the nave
  • 2 [with object and adverbial of direction] convey (goods) by rail:perishables were railed into Manhattan
  • 3 [no object] (in windsurfing) sail the board on its edge: the more you pull down on the boom, the more you rail

Phrases

go off the rails

informal begin behaving in an uncontrolled or unacceptable way: sport saved them from going off the rails as youngsters

on the rails

  • 1 informal behaving or functioning in a normal or regulated way:he is determined to get the club back on the rails
  • 2(of a racehorse or jockey) in a position on the racetrack nearest the inside fence: Duffield got himself jammed in on the rails

Derivatives

railage

noun

railless

adjective

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French reille 'iron rod', from Latin regula 'straight stick, rule'

rail in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of rail in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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