railroad flat

American  

noun

1. an apartment whose series of narrow rooms forms a more or less straight line.

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Etymology

Origin of railroad flat

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

railroad flat

If you want blinds, he suggested using a bamboo one from Pearl River Mart, which he hung in his first apartment, a small railroad flat in the East Village.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 25, 2018

Her parents, 26-year-old Clifford and 24-year-old Anna, were at their six-room railroad flat on 131 West 116th Street in Harlem.

From The Guardian ● May 4, 2017

Our railroad flat was the floor above the Hansa Gallery, where Dick and Ivan Karp had been hired by a group of artists as “directors.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2016

We see a narrow railroad flat littered with garbage, a stained mattress leaning precariously against a wall and a few pathetic sticks of furniture.

From BusinessWeek ● Feb. 3, 2012

The diagram is a layout of a railroad flat.

From "Twelve Angry Men" by Reginald Rose