railroad

[reyl-rohd]

noun

1. a permanent road laid with rails, rail, 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.

2. an entire system of such roads together with its rolling stock, buildings, etc.; the entire railway plant, including fixed and movable property.

3. the company of persons owning or operating such a plant.

4. Bowling.,  a split.

5. railroads, stocks or bonds of railroad companies.

verb (used with object)

1. to transport by means of a railroad.

2. to supply with railroads.

3. Informal.,  to push (a law or bill) hastily through a legislature so that there is not time enough for objections to be considered.

4. 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)

1. to work on a railroad.

railroad

/ ˈreɪlˌrəʊd /

noun

1. the usual US word for railway

verb

1. informal,  (tr) to force (a person) into (an action) with haste or by unfair means

Other Word Forms

• nonrailroad adjective
• prerailroad adjective
• prorailroad adjective
• unrailroaded adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of railroad¹

1750–60; 1875–85 railroad for def. 9; rail ¹ + road

Example Sentences

The OT’s Jewish victims, like their non-Jewish counterparts, were forced to work on everything from underground armaments factories to V-2 rockets and even a railroad above the Arctic Circle in Norway.

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The Midwest city, as many know, is Disney’s birthplace, but in 1948 he and Kimball embarked on a vacation to that city’s railroad fair.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t originate in railroad slang.

Read more on Salon

He moved the family business to Encinitas, where he bought 67 acres near the railroad and Interstate 5 and planted so many patented poinsettia plants that passersby were treated to crimson waves come November.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

As America expanded by building canals, steamboats and early railroads, demand soared for wage labor in factories, transportation and among office workers like clerks.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• rail line www.thesaurus.com
• railway 
• subway