underground railroad

noun

1. Also called underground railway. a railroad running through a continuous tunnel, as under city streets; subway.

2. (often initial capital letters),  (before the abolition of slavery) a system for helping African Americans fleeing slavery to escape into Canada or other places of safety.

underground railroad

noun

1. (often capitals) (in the pre-Civil War US) the system established by abolitionists to aid escaping slaves

Underground Railroad

1. A network of houses and other places that abolitionists used to help slaves escape to freedom in the northern states or in Canada before the Civil War. The escaped slaves traveled from one “station” of the railroad to the next under cover of night. Harriet Tubman was the most prominent “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Underground Railroad¹

First recorded in 1825–35

Idioms and Phrases

A secret network for moving and housing fugitives, as in There's definitely an underground railroad helping women escape abusive husbands. This term, dating from the first half of the 1800s, alludes to the network that secretly transported runaway slaves through the northern states to Canada. It was revived more than a century later for similar escape routes.

Example Sentences

“Think how you’ll grieve for all you’ll leave behind,” she sings to a herd of otters, koalas, flamingos, giraffes, bunnies and kangaroos fleeing Oz for the safety of the Yellow Brick Underground Railroad.

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Robotaxis are set to become the newest cog in a centuries-old transport machine that includes many services that were groundbreaking in their day, such as the world’s first underground railroad and its first regulated taxi service.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Benicio del Toro plays Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, Willa’s karate teacher running something of an underground railroad for the town’s refugee population.

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The United States National Park Service began scrubbing its exhibits about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, but public pressure reversed that erasure.

Read more on Salon

Written by and starring Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, “Mexodus” explores the little known history of the Underground Railroad to Mexico.

Read more on Los Angeles Times