narrow gauge

American  

noun

1. gauge15

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narrow gauge British  

noun

1. a railway track with a smaller distance between the lines than the standard gauge of 56 1/ 2 in

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or denoting a railway with a narrow gauge

Other Word Forms

• narrow-gauge adjective
• narrow-gauged adjective

Etymology

Origin of narrow gauge

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

“While his competitors were building rail lines east and west, Palmer proposed a narrow gauge from Denver along the Rocky Mountains southward to El Paso, Texas and eventually Mexico.”

From Washington Times • Sep. 7, 2020

You can remind him that people suffer across the world while he studies the history and politics of the narrow gauge.

From Scientific American • Jul. 6, 2020

While narrow gauge railroads were cheaper to build, there was one major downside to a three-foot-gauge railroad: it was incompatible with most other railroads.

From Washington Post • Sep. 20, 2018

At Mombasa, the old British-built narrow gauge railway can only take 5% of the containers that are offloaded, says Haji Masemo, a spokesman for the KPA.

From Economist • Mar. 17, 2016

Beside it lay her best bonnet, also of black, an affair of a very narrow gauge and built high up at the back, having the appearance of being several sizes too small for its wearer.

From Bindle Some Chapters in the Life of Joseph Bindle by Jenkins, Herbert George