freight train
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of freight train
First recorded in 1835–45
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A line outside a Riverside gas station crossed a railroad track, and a man stopped on the tracks refused to yield his place even when a freight train engine bore down on him.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 18, 2026
It felt like a freight train coming at you.
From Barron's • Feb. 14, 2026
But when a freight train stalled at a key intersection in the middle of the city, they found themselves stuck on the wrong side of the street for nearly 30 minutes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 20, 2025
I don’t want to step in front of a freight train and play mean reversion at the same time that something’s exploding.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 17, 2025
Florida heard the faint wail of the freight train as it wound its way through the distant hills, and she pulled the quilt up close to her face.
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
