railroad

[ reyl-rohd ]

noun

1. a permanent road laid with rails, rail, commonly in one or more pairs of continuous lines forming a track or tracks, on which locomotives and cars are run for the transportation of passengers, freight, and mail.
2. an entire system of such roads together with its rolling stock, buildings, etc.; the entire railway plant, including fixed and movable property.
3. the company of persons owning or operating such a plant.
4. Bowling. a split.
5. railroads, stocks or bonds of railroad companies.

verb (used with object)

1. to transport by means of a railroad.
2. to supply with railroads.
3. Informal. to push (a law or bill) hastily through a legislature so that there is not time enough for objections to be considered.
4. Informal. to convict (a person) in a hasty manner by means of false charges or insufficient evidence:

   The prisoner insisted he had been railroaded.

verb (used without object)

1. to work on a railroad.

railroad

/ ˈreɪlˌrəʊd /

noun

1. the usual US word for railway

verb

1. informal.
   tr to force (a person) into (an action) with haste or by unfair means

Other Words From

• non·railroad adjective
• pre·railroad adjective
• pro·railroad adjective
• un·railroaded adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of railroad¹

1750–60; 1875–85 railroad fordef 9; rail ¹ + road

Example Sentences

HUEHUETOCA, Mexico — In a forlorn stretch of high desert outside Mexico City, a dozen migrants trudged along beside a set of railroad tracks, hoping to jump on a freight train that would take them closer to the United States.

From Los Angeles Times

Attendees say Jamie would begin by giving a talk, where he would mention a portion of the fee would be donated to charity, with the logos of Mind, Rainbow Railroad and the Oddballs Foundation visible in photos of the sessions posted on social media.

From BBC

But in the centre of Wilmington, outside the railroad station named after Joseph R Biden Jr. it was clear that not everyone agreed.

From BBC

After lunch on the day she comforted the crying man, Omura drove a women from her broken down RV to a strip mall to cash her disability check, urged a woman in a tent by the railroad tracks to go with her to a shelter and listened to the unintelligible story of a man she had never seen before sitting on a bench outside Redondo Beach City Hall.

From Los Angeles Times

The woman by the railroad track had agreed to go into one of the city’s tiny homes, but then she disappeared, probably moving closer to her roots in Hawthorne, Omura thought.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• rail line
• railway
• subway