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railroad Definition

rail·road (rālrōd′)

noun

  1. a road laid with parallel steel rails along which cars carrying passengers or freight are drawn by locomotives
  2. a complete system of such roads, including land, rolling stock, stations, etc.
  3. the persons or corporation owning and managing such a system

transitive verb

  1. ☆ to transport by railroad
  2. Informal to rush through quickly, esp. so quickly as to prevent careful consideration to railroad a bill through Congress
  3. Slang to cause to go to prison on a trumped-up charge or with too hasty a trial

intransitive verb

☆ to work on a railroad

railroad Related Forms

rail·road′er noun

railroad Synonyms

railroad

n.

track, line, railway, trains, rails, elevated, underground, subway, métro (French), tube (British), commuter line, cable railway, monorail, cog railway, sidetrack, siding, passing track, loading track, feeder line, main line, double track, single track, trunk line, transcontinental railroad, system, el*, iron horse*; see also train 2.

railroad Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • build: Examples include building a railroad, or a factory, clearing land, or putting oneself through college.
  • run: It is no way to run a railroad, or we suggest, a police service.
  • use: Although the text used is in the American form of the English language - e.g. using the word railroad instead of railroad!
  • have: We already have a nascent global underground railroad of sorts, thanks partly to mobility within the communion.
  • cross: Take the first right turn past the factory: after about 500m you will cross a railroad.

Followed by an intransitive particle

through: This has led to crisis year after year where cuts have been proposed and railroaded through.

Adjective modifier

  • transcontinental: Want to create a race to complete a transcontinental railroad in 30 years using only steam engines?
  • underground: Link The Underground Railroad Curious about how slaves escaped?
  • American: Thursday 16 February 2006 North America Ian Lothian A selection of slides of North American railroads.
  • great: The bank is as necessary to the thrifty farmer as it is to the greatest railroad or the most wide-spread trust.
  • first: America's first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, used the 4 foot 8.5 inches standard.
  • new: Materials for the new railroad were brought in on the River on Thames barges ironically utilizing waterpower for the new railroad.

Modifies a noun

  • ty: Would you believe that they are now going to ban railroad sleepers ( railroad ties )?
  • enthusiast: This rare archive steam footage was lovingly captured on 16mm film by the famous American railroad enthusiast, Harry P. Dodge.
  • track: Walk down the track, to the old railroad track.
  • bridge: A short walk from the hotel is a railroad bridge you can walk on that gives a magnificent view of the river Eden.
  • station: The world's longest railroad station name is in Wales.
  • yard: It began to rain, so they went to a box car in the railroad yards.

Noun used with modifier

  • island: River explorer was island railroad company paul on the.
  • gage: Built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, this narrow gage railroad is an International Historic Civil Engineering landmark.

Browse dictionary entries near railroad

  1. raillery
  2. railing
  3. railhead
  4. railbird
  5. rail-splitter
  6. rail at
  7. rail
  8. raider
  9. raid
  10. rah-rah
  1. railroad flat
  2. railroading
  3. railway
  4. raiment
  5. rain
  6. rain attenuation
  7. rain-barrel effect
  8. rain check
  9. rain fade
  10. rain forest