railroad
Americannoun
-
railroads
plural
-
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.
-
railroads, stocks or bonds of railroad companies.
verb (used with object)
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railroads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
railroaded,
past participle, past
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railroading
present participle
-
to transport by means of a railroad.
-
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)
-
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
-
railroadsimple
-
railroadssimple
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have railroadedperfect
-
has railroadedperfect
-
am railroadingprogressive
-
are railroadingprogressive
-
is railroadingprogressive
-
have been railroadingperfect progressive
-
has been railroadingperfect progressive
Past
-
railroadedsimple
-
had railroadedperfect
-
was railroadingprogressive
-
were railroadingprogressive
-
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:
Along the entire coast, public infrastructure that we all benefit from is under threat, including roadways, parks and railroad tracks, and that’s where any public investment ought to go.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Scientists in Japan have discovered that tiny steps just one atom high can act like microscopic railroad tracks, guiding the movement of quantum vortices inside an ultrathin superconductor.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
Not before an awful lot of work, though, and Charles Crocker, the indefatigable, hard-handed railroad magnate in charge of the Central Pacific’s construction crews, looked around for people to do it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
In inflation-adjusted terms, the AI sector is expected to borrow more this year than US cable operators did to build out the entire internet, or than railroad companies did during the 19th-century US rail boom.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
The Fox sisters did make a return to the pages of the country’s major newspapers, alongside stories of railroad strikes, and state visits by European royalty.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
The IMF has said that the amount invested in AI will likely outstrip the capital put into building the railroads, the electricity grid or global telecommunications networks.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
The industrialists of the 19th and 20th centuries made their fortunes on new markets like oil, steel and railroads.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
With California’s coast getting pounded by strong waves amid a strengthening El Niño, residents and city leaders are turning to big rocks and seawalls to protect homes and keep railroads from falling into the sea.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Airlines and railroads had long offered their own credit cards but those were generally good only for the company that issued them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
As North Vietnamese attacks in South Vietnam intensified, Johnson decided to run a continuous bombing campaign over North Vietnam aimed at destroying railroads, bridges, roads, and manufacturing plants.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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
Feeling "railroaded" and "powerless", she left in tears and concluded the family would need their own lawyers if their questions about the care Daniel received were to be fully answered.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 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
If I had been railroaded, the authorities would have known how I’d gotten it.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
But wage-earners—in textile manufacturing and railroading, to pick two examples—gained by the steady appreciation in the purchasing power of their hard-earned money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 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
He called the administration’s action “an important step in making railroading safer in every state, rather than a piecemeal approach.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
They launched into a long discussion of their memories, both of railroading and of the Sierras.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
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