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RAILS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A bar or pair of parallel bars of rolled steel making the railway along which railroad cars or other vehicles can roll
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("rails" is a kind of...):
bar (a rigid piece of metal or wood; usually used as a fastening or obstruction or weapon)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rails"):
third rail (a rail through which electric current is supplied to an electric locomotive)
Holonyms ("rails" is a part of...):
railroad; railroad track; railway (a line of track providing a runway for wheels)
streetcar track; tramline; tramway (the track on which trams or streetcars run)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (third person singular) of the verb rail
Context examples:
After a good day’s killing I have seen our decks covered with hides and bodies, slippery with fat and blood, the scuppers running red; masts, ropes, and rails spattered with the sanguinary colour; and the men, like butchers plying their trade, naked and red of arm and hand, hard at work with ripping and flensing-knives, removing the skins from the pretty sea-creatures they had killed.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
This new moon is not an eclipse, but it could knock a project off the rails, particularly if it is a writing or speaking project.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
For example, a storm could cause mortality for a third of saltmarsh sparrows and clapper rails in one year, but it would be unlikely that their populations would decrease significantly over time.
(Coastal birds can weather the storm, but not the sea, National Science Foundation)
The speaker came forward and leaned on the rails.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Away we went, however, on our holiday excursion; and the first thing we did was to stop at a church, where Mr. Barkis tied the horse to some rails, and went in with Peggotty, leaving little Em'ly and me alone in the chaise.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Once or twice I went out to see that all was right, and it was, and then the 'owling stopped. Just before twelve o'clock I just took a look round afore turnin' in, an', bust me, but when I kem opposite to old Bersicker's cage I see the rails broken and twisted about and the cage empty.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
We came at last to the wooden gate with the high stone pillars by the roadside, and, looking through between the rails, we saw the long avenue of oaks, and at the end of this ill-boding tunnel, the pale face of the house glimmered in the moonshine.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Staffers who report to you might not get along with each other, or a project may go off the rails, so be attentive.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Our place was taken at the communion rails.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Doctor Strong looked almost as rusty, to my thinking, as the tall iron rails and gates outside the house; and almost as stiff and heavy as the great stone urns that flanked them, and were set up, on the top of the red-brick wall, at regular distances all round the court, like sublimated skittles, for Time to play at.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
