railroad
Americannoun
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railroads
plural
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a permanent road laid with rails, 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.
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an entire system of such roads together with its rolling stock, buildings, etc.; the entire railway plant, including fixed and movable property.
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the company of persons owning or operating such a plant.
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Bowling. a split.
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railroads, stocks or bonds of railroad companies.
verb (used with object)
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railroads,
present (3rd person singular)
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railroaded,
past participle, past
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railroading
present participle
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to transport by means of a railroad.
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to supply with railroads.
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Informal. to push (a law or bill) hastily through a legislature so that there is not time enough for objections to be considered.
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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)
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railroads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
railroaded,
past participle, past
-
railroading
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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railroadsimple
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railroadssimple
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have railroadedperfect
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has railroadedperfect
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am railroadingprogressive
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are railroadingprogressive
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is railroadingprogressive
-
have been railroadingperfect progressive
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has been railroadingperfect progressive
Past
-
railroadedsimple
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had railroadedperfect
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was railroadingprogressive
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were railroadingprogressive
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had been railroadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of railroad
1750–60; 1875–85 railroad for def. 9; rail 1 + road
Explanation
The system of tracks that trains run on can be called a railroad. A railroad is made up of the actual tracks, crossings, and stations, as well as the people who keep the trains running and scream, "All aboard!" If you prefer traveling by railroad, you like to ride trains, whether to the next town over or all the way across the country. Many railroad tracks in the US are used for freight trains that deliver goods around the country. When railroad is a verb, it can mean "move by train," but it's more likely to mean "force or coerce someone to do something," like when you railroad your brother into taking out the trash for you.
Vocabulary lists containing railroad
The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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The Industrial Revolution - Middle School and High School
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History of India - Introductory
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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.
See Examples For:
Following his confession, Oxford led police beyond a set of railroad tracks, past a church, to a tree stump near the bank of a creek.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Dave Marsh was born in Flint, Michigan, where his dad worked on the railroad and did not appreciate the length of his son’s hair or the music he listened to.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
The railroad has since struck a $310 million consent decree with the federal government and state of Ohio for cleanup costs, civil penalties and funding for a 20-year community-health program and medical monitoring.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
The $13 billion figure shows the strength of the company’s railroad, energy and manufacturing, service, and retailing units.
From Barron's ● Aug. 8, 2026
The Maryland National Guard fought its way through striking railroad workers in Baltimore on July 20.
From "Fannie Never Flinched" by Mary Cronk Farrell
That happened in the 1914 storms, to the bridges criss-crossed by streetcars and railroads, and to the famous pigeon farm that stood at the Y where the Arroyo Seco joined the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks added more than 0.5%, while an index tracking the railroads, airlines and trucks transporting the goods and raw materials that power the U.S. economy climbed 0.5%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
The railroads advertised the L.A. climate as a last resort for the world’s sickly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The Alorton, Ill.-based company works with railroads around the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Even today, with Eurasian crops and with trucks and railroads to transport produce, food production in Australia remains a risky business.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The Clippers are howling in protest, vehemently rejecting the league’s conclusions and stating they’ve been railroaded by a “heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Having stripped away most of the documentary’s narration and sit-down interviews with Kerr’s family and friends, the film barely explores anyone’s psychology — and Blunt’s railroaded Dawn loses her chance to speak for herself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2025
Like other actors including Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino, Julia Ormond, briefly a major star in the 1990s, has alleged in a lawsuit that Weinstein railroaded her career.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2024
She said: "The CPS did not consult us as has been reported - instead we have been rushed, hastened and railroaded."
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2024
If I had been railroaded, the authorities would have known how I’d gotten it.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Call off the swarms of lawyers and PR handlers, the howling about railroading and witch hunts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Unlike Derry’s pubs, it welcomed everybody and also secretly provided a safe refuge for Hank as he hid from the cops intent on railroading him.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2025
“When the Mexican Revolution was going on, you had a lot of Mexican immigrants coming into these railroading hubs and centers like the Inland Empire, like San Bernardino,” Ocegueda said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2025
At its core, precision scheduled railroading focused on having fixed schedules for shipments rather than waiting for a certain amount of coal to be loaded before moving.
From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2022
They launched into a long discussion of their memories, both of railroading and of the Sierras.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
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.
